DAIMLER TRUCKS, the world’s largest commercial vehicles maker by revenue, sees “enormous” potential for further growth in emerging markets that will come on top of its forecasts for double-digit sales gains in coming years.
The maker of the Mercedes-Benz Actros long-haul lorry reaffirmed yesterday its strategic target of increasing vehicle sales to half a million next year, excluding alliances with its partners in China and Russia – a figure that will eventually rise to 700,000 in 2020.
Sales in Brazil are expected to drop by around 10 to 15 per cent this year, however, after the government elected to introduce Euro V emission norms for commercial vehicles at the start of this year, leading to purchases being brought forward into 2011.
“But it still is at historically high levels. This year more than 140,000 trucks over 6 tonnes will most likely be sold in Brazil – that is about as many as in Germany, France and Italy combined,” said Andreas Renschler, chief of Daimler Trucks, which is part of Daimler AG.
“In India it was roughly 325,000 trucks and the country is warming itself up to overtake the US as the world’s second-largest truck market (after China) in the medium term,” he told reporters in Stuttgart.
Renschler said seven out of every 10 trucks on the road in Russia, Europe’s largest commercial vehicle market, were more than 15-years-old.
The company hopes to tap into the fastest growing segment for trucks in emerging markets: the so-called “modern domestic” vehicle, in part through alliances with local partners Foton in China and Kamaz in Russia.
Renschler said these were better built than many of the BRIC commercial trucks currently available, even if they are some 20 years behind western standards.
Daimler launched BharatBenz last year in India, its fifth truck brand, where it hopes to meet an increased demand for modern domestics with a new heavy duty truck based on its Mercedes-Benz Axor platform.
“Volumes this year will be minimal, since we’re still in the ramp up phase, so fewer than 5,000 – maybe even less,” he said. – (Reuters)