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Equipment

Daimler Truck signals production 'flexibility' if Trump tariffs require it

Nov. 8, 2024

Unit sales at Freightliner and Western Star's parent company rose 4% from the same period last year, with vocational trucks continuing to perform well. The truckmaker's CEO said its production footprint could be flexible if Trump goes through with vehicle tariffs.

Geert De Lombaerde

Daimler Truck North America is well positioned to absorb the impact of possible tariffs targeting Mexico under the incoming Trump administration, the company’s chairwoman and CEO told analysts Nov. 7.

Speaking after Daimler Truck Holding AG reported its third-quarter results, Karin Rådström said it’s too early to speculate on possible Trump tariffs taking aim at products brought into the U.S. from Mexico. But she noted that the company can move production relatively easily and that all of its Freightliner, Western Star, and Thomas Built Buses models can be made at either its U.S. or Mexican plants. Shifts could be added where needed, she said.

“We have a lot of flexibility when it comes to our production footprint,” Rådström said. “There’s no single dependency on a particular product in Mexico […] We do believe we are well positioned.”

DTNA runs manufacturing plants in Cleveland, Gastonia, High Point, and Mt. Holly in North Carolina, as well as near its continental headquarters in Portland, Oregon, and in Gaffney, South Carolina. The company, which houses almost 18,000 employees, produced a Q3 profit of about $784 million, an increase of 2% from the same period of 2023. Revenues rose 5% to roughly $6.47 billion, but a changing mix of sales—with fewer higher-margin heavy-duty trucks being shipped—ate into margins during the quarter.

Unit sales during the quarter rose 4% year over year to 49,176, growing the year-to-date number to nearly 144,000. CFO Eva Scherer drew attention to the strong performance of the division’s vocational truck lineup, which includes a number of Western Star vehicles.

Looking ahead, Scherer said the effects of Hurricane Helene hitting the company’s North Carolina operations and its suppliers could dent Q4 shipments. The business, she said, started the fourth quarter with a production gap of several thousand units but is pushing to shrink that number.

Overall, Daimler Truck’s global operations sold nearly 115,000 vehicles in Q3, which was a drop of 11% from the same period of 2023, thanks in part to a very weak German market as well as softness in several other regions. The company’s net profit fell by a third to about $680 million as revenue slipped 5% to $14.2 billion.

Shares of Daimler Truck (Ticker: DTG) rose nearly 3% in European trading Nov. 7. That brought them to just about even with their level of six months ago, leaving the company with a market capitalization of about $34 billion.

About the Author

Geert De Lombaerde | Senior Editor

A native of Belgium, Geert De Lombaerde has more than two decades of experience in business journalism. Since 2021, he has written about markets and economic trends for Endeavor Business Media publications FleetOwner, Healthcare Innovation, IndustryWeek, Oil & Gas Journal, and T&D World.

With a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri, he began his reporting career at the Business Courier in Cincinnati. He later was managing editor and editor of the Nashville Business Journal. Most recently, he oversaw the online and print products of the Nashville Post and reported primarily on Middle Tennessee’s finance sector and many of its publicly traded companies.