Daimler Truck Holding AG
XETRA:DTG
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Daimler Truck Holding AG
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Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. This is Christian Herrmann speaking. On behalf of Daimler Truck, I'd like to welcome you on both telephone and the Internet to our Q2 results global conference call. We are very happy to have with us today, Martin Daum, our CEO; and Jochen Goetz, our CFO. Martin and Jochen will begin with an introduction, directly followed by a Q&A session.
The respective presentation can be found on the Daimler Truck IR website. On our request, this conference will be recorded. The replay of the conference call will also be available as an on-demand audio webcast in the Investor Relations section of the Daimler Truck website.
I would like to remind you that this telephone conference is governed by the safe harbor wording you will find in our published results documents. Please note, our presentations contain forward-looking statements that reflect management's current views with respect to future events. Such statements are subject to many risks and uncertainties. If the assumptions underlying any of these statements prove incorrect, then actual results may be materially different from those expressed or implied by such statements. Forward-looking statements speak only to the date on which they are made.
With that, I would like to hand it over to you, Martin.
Yes. Thank you, Christian. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and a warm welcome from me as well. Thank you all for joining us today.
Let me start with this Q2 call, not with Q2, but with the key messages of our Capital Market Day that took place only 3 weeks ago in Boston.
At our Capital Markets Day, we outlined our way forward to 2030, and I think it is worthwhile to do a brief recap of the most important milestones. We raised our guidance for 2023 and now expected -- and now expect an adjusted return on sales for our industrial business of 8.5% to 10%. All our industrial segments contributed to this increase.
We are on track to deliver on our ambition of more than 10% return on sales for 2025 in good market conditions. We are aiming for a return on sales of more than 12% by 2030. This is all the more significant because we expect our revenue to be noticeably higher in 2030 than in 2025. Because if those figures increase significantly, revenue and return on sales, our EBIT should increase very significantly.
Plus, we updated our capital allocation framework for more stable dividends, and then initiating a share buyback program of up to EUR 2 billion over up to 2 years. We want to make sure that our shareholders fully benefit from our successful development.
All of this clearly shows we are very confident about our way forward, and the second quarter of this year is a further proof that our confidence is well founded in reality.
Jochen Goetz will do a financial deep dive in a minute, but here are a few first key figures for the quarter. We achieved an adjusted group EBIT of EUR 1.4 billion. Adjusted return on sales in our Industrial Business of 10.3%. Earnings per share EUR 1.11. Free cash flow in our Industrial Business of EUR 382 million, net industrial liquidity of EUR 6.8 billion. Key takeaway here is that we accomplished another record quarter. I could say, historical record quarter.
We significantly improved our profitability compared to Q1 this year and to Q2 last year, and we did so despite the fact that Q2 last year, including positive one-time effects. For the first time in our company's history, the adjusted return on sales of our industrial business is now in the double digits. And let me point out, this is an operationally clean result.
For the first half year of 2023, this comes down to an adjusted return on sales in our Industrial Business of 9.6%, and this is fully in line with our 2023 full year guidance of 8.5% to 10%.
In the Board of Management, we are very pleased of these results, and I want to thank all our employees around the globe for their dedication and great work. Well done, a big thank you to the entire Daimler team. That much for the key figures.
Now a brief look at the Q2 key topics driving our profitability and our ambition to lead sustainable transportation. We are continuing to optimize our portfolio in all levels, with active capital allocation. Most significantly in Q2, we signed in a memorandum of understanding with Toyota Motor Corporation, the potential merge of the businesses of Mitsubishi Fuso and Hino Motors and to collaborate in all technologies relevant to the transformation of our industry.
In the course of restructuring our operations at Mercedes-Benz Trucks in Brazil, the number of locations in Brazil will be reduced from three to two, as our business activities in Campinas will be outsourced and relocated. In Q2, supply chain improved. And given the strong backlog, this allowed for a significant increase in unit sales and production. However, supply chains are not yet on a normal level, and there's a risk that the second half of the year will be still impacted by disruptions. Demand remained strong in the past quarter, while incoming orders and order backlog declined as expected due to not yet fully opened order books.
With respect to driving transformation, we presented our RIZON-branded battery-electric truck and our Freightliner eM2 for the U.S. market. We presented our city bus Mercedes eCitaro fuel cell, a battery electric bus that comes with an additional fuel cell as a range extender. This spring, we also toured the Alps with prototypes of our Mercedes-Benz fuel cell truck, demonstrating that we are making good progress on the road to series production.
Let us take now a quick look at the key market developments in Q2. In North America, demand in the heavy-duty segment continues to be robust, and we can take full advantage of this solid demand. Our market share remains strong at over 40%. Going forward, all new -- our all-new vocational Western Star truck offers further market share potential.
In Europe, we see a similarly strong market environment. In the first half of the year, the heavy-duty market is 18% above prior year. Our market share came to 18.5%, driven by a significant improvement in the second quarter compared to the first quarter. Both of our key markets, therefore, remained strong, and our market and volume guidance for 2023 seems to be very appropriate.
Looking at unit sales and orders. Overall unit sales at Daimler Truck increased by 9% compared to Q2 2022. On a very positive note, this increase was driven by all of our segments. Main contributors were Trucks North America, Trucks Asia and Daimler buses. At Mercedes-Benz, we also saw a good development in Europe; however, Brazilian sales are down as expected after the implementation of Euro 6 in this country.
Order intake decreased, but this did not come as a surprise. It is something we had expected and already indicated in our Q1 call. One reason is that we have not yet fully opened our order books for the next year, especially our U.S. order book is not open yet to take orders for 2024. As a consequence, our order backlog has been decreasing, but it's important to note that our order backlog still remains on a very high level.
Regarding zero-emission vehicles, the momentum remains strong for Daimler Trucks. In the first half, we sold 670 battery electric trucks and buses, a 50% increase year-over-year. ZEV orders reached almost 1,800 units, a 40% increase versus prior year. Equally important, we continue to get a lot of great customer feedback for our all-electric trucks and buses.
By the end of this year, our customers will already have 10 different battery electric trucks and buses models to choose from. But as you know, apart from the right vehicle, our customers also need the right charging infrastructure and the right total cost of ownership. These factors are still holding our customers back. We, therefore, work hard altogether with partners and in discussions with policymakers to make sure that the infrastructure and cost parity will be in place as soon as possible.
With that, I would like to hand over to you, Jochen, for a deep dive into the financials.
Thanks, Martin, and also a warm welcome from my side. You already know all important Q2 KPIs. Let's now complete the picture with some more details on the financials.
For the second quarter of 2023, revenue on group level increased by 15% to EUR 13.9 billion versus EUR 12.1 billion in the second last year. Again, revenue increased significantly stronger than unit sales. Group EBIT increased by 28% to EUR 1.38 billion, while adjusted group EBIT rose by 41% to EUR 1.43 billion. Adjustments, mainly related to the spin-off costs.
Important to mention, the second quarter was a clean quarter without any major special impact to EBIT. Quarterly free cash flow of the Industrial Business increased from minus EUR 756 million for last year's Q2 to plus EUR 382 million, mainly driven by the good development of cash flow before interests and taxes of an Industrial Business of EUR 916 million.
Versus the level at the end of Q2 last year, net industrial liquidity increased by 25% to EUR 6.8 billion at the end of second quarter despite the payment of EUR 1.1 billion as dividend to our shareholders. Revenue of the Industrial Business for the second quarter increased significantly to EUR 13.2 billion, and adjusted EBIT came in at EUR 1.36 billion. This resulted in an adjusted return on sales of 10.3%, our first double-digit return on sales figure on Industrial Business level.
Trucks North America realized an adjusted EBIT of EUR 783 million and an adjusted return on sales of 13.1%, a clean quarter without any special effects. While supply chain was still facing some interruptions during the second quarter, unit sales could be significantly increased year-over-year as well as quarter-over-quarter to 50,600 units, what again translated into a strong market share.
Volume and mix was the most positive EBIT contributor in Q2, but also strong pricing, with a continued realization of the pricing surcharges on the one hand and the usual model year price escalator on the other hand, help to overcompensate rising material costs and inflationary cost effects. The strong performance of Trucks North America in the recent second quarter clearly shows that the update of the '23 ROS target corridor to 11% to 13% was appropriate. Consequently, we expect also Q3 and Q4 to be within this range, with Q3 on a similar level as Q2.
Mercedes-Benz came in with an adjusted return on sales of 9.8% on the back of an adjusted EBIT of EUR 544 million. Unit sales came in slightly positive. Strong demand in the most European core markets resulted in significant unit sales increases, while this positive effect was compensated by a significant unit sales decrease in Brazil caused by the slow Euro 6 ramp-up.
The major EBIT driver in Q2 showed a similar structure as in Q1. The strongest positive contribution came from the realization of pricing measures, followed by volume and mix and a strong aftersales business performance. These positive effects more than compensated high negative inflationary effects, especially with material as well as personnel costs.
Important to remember when comparing last year's second quarter was positive -- last year's second quarter was positively, impacted by the noncash EBIT impact of around EUR 160 million from license income for the localization of Mercedes-Benz trucks in China. Last but not least, fuel cell is back in positive territory.
Looking forward to the full year 2023, we recently lifted the adjusted return on sales target corridor for Mercedes-Benz to 8% to 10%. We expect the upcoming third quarter in a similar range as Q2.
Trucks Asia printed an adjusted EBIT of EUR 90 million, an adjusted return on sales of 5.4%. Q2 unit sales in Asia saw an uptick by 9% year-over-year to 40,100 units. As mentioned throughout last year, we now see the positive impact of the increased pricing also in Japan.
India and Indonesia contributed with a positive pricing as well. A strong contribution from the aftersales business came from both, Japan and the international markets. BFDA, our Chinese joint venture, again, made a negative contribution of minus EUR 4 million versus Q2 of last year. The Q2 equity results from BFDA amounted to minus EUR 18 million.
Our restructuring of MBTB is on track, with an adjusted return on sales above the Trucks Asia average. We also recently updated the adjusted return sales target corridor for Trucks Asia to 4% to 6%. For the upcoming Q3, we expect a slight drop in performance compared to the second quarter.
The Q2 adjusted EBIT for Daimler Buses came in with EUR 33 million, resulting in an adjusted return on sales of 3.4%, a significant improvement from the minus EUR 10 million adjusted EBIT and minus 1.2% adjusted return on sales in the prior year Q2.
Q2 Unit sales saw a 22% year-over-year improvement, especially from EU30 and Latin America to 6,200 units. Although still at low level, we see a continuous recovery of the European coach market towards 2024.
The resulting positive volume effect in EBIT as well as the strong contribution from pricing and aftersales overcompensated headwinds from higher material and inflationary costs as well as higher R&D costs driven by transformation. We recently updated the '23 adjusted return on sales guidance for Daimler Bus to 3% to 5%. Due to the normal yearly seasonality in our bus segment, we expect Q3 and Q4 to gradually improve from the Q2 level and full year '23 profitability to sit well within the new target corridor.
Let me emphasize one thing at this point. The strong Q2 results underpin our confidence in the recently updated full year '23 adjusted return on sales guidance for each industrial segment. The rate guidance as well as the results for the second quarter showed that we are clearly delivering towards our financial ambitions, proving our commitment to uplift profitability.
EBIT on group level increased from EUR 1.1 billion in the prior year quarter to EUR 1.4 billion in the recent second quarter. Pricing, volume mix and aftersales were the major positive earning drivers. As I already highlighted from Mercedes-Benz's quarterly performance, this bucket includes the onetime negative effect of around EUR 160 million from the license income for the localization of Mercedes-Benz truck in China that benefited last year's Q2.
The negative FX effect from minus EUR 39 million comes almost entirely from translation, half of it from U.S. dollar, the other half from the Japanese yen translation. With an industrial performance bucket of minus EUR 161 million, around about half of the burden came from inflation-driven higher material costs and the other half from higher variable overhead costs.
As in the first quarter, this year, net-net price cost mix in Q2 was, again, clearly positive. Selling and to a larger extent, G&A expenses also increased compared to prior year's quarter, especially due to inflationary-driven higher personnel costs and IT project costs.
While the inflationary environment remains challenging, I want to make one thing clear. Improving our fixed cost situation has already contributed significantly to our performance and remains one of the top priorities for us to be able to further uplift profitability and to become even more resilient. To complete the picture, the contribution of the Financial Services segment was EUR 6 million, lower in Q2 than last year. Regarding adjustments, group EBIT was affected by an amount of minus EUR 50 million, mainly coming from IT-related spin-off costs.
Looking at the Industrial Business part of the group, all segments contributed positively to the 45% year-over-year increase of adjusted EBIT to EUR 1.36 billion. The strongest contribution came from Trucks North America with EUR 260 million. Trucks Asia contributed EUR 61 million, Daimler Buses EUR 43 million and Mercedes-Benz EUR 33 million year-over-year.
Reconciliation includes mainly our autonomous activity as well as sales-centric. For the second half of the year, we expect a similar amount as in the first half. On the back of this EBIT performance, adjusted return on sales reached 10.3%.
At Financial Services, new business increased by 6% year-over-year due to a full integration of all markets in Europe. Penetration rate dropped by 2.7 percentage points due to very competitive situation in North America and to ramp-up in our markets, Germany and France. Compared to the end of the financial year 2022, contract volume increased by EUR 1.2 billion to EUR 25.4 billion. EBIT adjusted in Q2 came in at EUR 65 million, slightly below prior year's quarter.
Return on equity adjusted stood also lower at 11.4%. Despite a higher contract volume, the operating result from financing and leasing business remained stable due to a challenging interest rate environment. Positive effects came from a lower cost of risk due to improved customer behavior, especially in Mexico. Due to the integration of traditional markets in Europe, financial services had a higher cost base, including ramp-up project expenses. We see a negative baseline effect, especially in higher G&A and selling expenses.
Overall, the underlying quality of our portfolio remained solid, with cost of credit risk and net credit losses still on low levels. After a negative effect in working capital in Q1 of EUR 1.1 billion due to normal seasonal inventory build-up at the beginning of the year, cash flow of the Industrial Business in the second quarter was now only affected by EUR 282 million negative working capital effects, also mainly from inventories. We expect this to turn around by starting to significantly reduce the current stock level, mainly in Q4.
Depreciation and amortization of EUR 277 million were more or less on the same level as net investments in PP&E and intangible assets of minus EUR 280 million. Roughly half of the negative EUR 122 million effect in the provision and other buckets came from bonus payments. As a result, cash flow before interest and taxes of the Industrial Business for the second quarter stood at EUR 916 million. Cash taxes amounted to minus EUR 538 million, the normal steep increase versus the level into respective first quarter as the second quarter includes two tax payment dates in the United States.
As a result, free cash flow of the Industrial Business came in at EUR 382 million. Adjusted free cash flow of the Industrial Business in Q2 increased versus the prior year quarter to EUR 496 million. Consequently, together with the dividend payment of EUR 1.1 billion, industrial net liquidity stood at EUR 6.8 billion at the end of the second quarter.
Before we have a glimpse on the outlook for the full year 2023, please let me give you the following remarks. Our outlook is subject to an exceptional degree of uncertainty due to the further development in the war in Ukraine and its economic consequences, inflationary pressure and potential further Central Bank increases in interest rates as well as the further macroeconomic and geopolitical development.
On the production side, we assume easing, but still ongoing supply bottlenecks, but no major production downtime. If supply constraints had stabilized and we have a more stable view on the full year 2023, we updated the heavy-duty truck market guidance on July 10.
It was increased to 290,000 to 330,000 units for North America and 300,000 to 340,000 units for EU30. And we ad hoc released the updated guidance for unit sales as well as the financial KPIs and discussed it all in details at our recent Capital Market Day. So let me just briefly flip through these two slides. The updated KPIs are indicated here by bold print and a frame. On my last slide for today, you can see the current full year 2023 guidance for all our segments.
Let me end with one more exciting news. With the publication of the Green Finance Framework last Friday, we set the basis for the insurance of the green financial industrial instrument at Daimler Truck. With this step, we underline our commitment to the transformation of our business towards emission-free driving and decarbonization.
With that, I would like to thank you very much. Martin and myself are now looking forward to your questions.
Thank you very much, Jochen and Martin. Ladies and gentlemen, you may ask your questions now. The operator will identify the question by name, but please also introduce yourself and the organization you are presenting. Just one practical point, as always, please ask your question in English.
Now before we start, the operator will explain the procedure.
Our first question today is from Daniela Costa from Goldman Sachs.
I really have just one and is aimed at understanding why sort of the 8.5% to 10% and not even higher, given what you have done. And some of your comments, I think, if we look at even the bottom end of unit sales, they will imply second half, which has more volumes, which would have better leverage. You've mentioned on easing supply chain. I think in the CMD, you talked about pricing, at least sequentially not coming down. You probably still have some self-help on Mercedes-Benz from the original fixed-cost takeout. So can you help us calibrate what could lead you to the 8.5%? And why the range is not even higher?
Thank you, Daniela, for your question, and thanks for your confidence in our business. We are confident, too. But I think 8.5% to 10% is appropriate for the moment. We have a history that we fulfill what we promised, and we are very -- we are really confident that our end results will be in that range. And it could be in the upper half of that range.
And then let's see how the further year unfolds. Jochen has said, the supply chain is still, every day, could be another interruption. If it's only for a couple of days, it will make it then difficult to pick up at the end of the year. So for me, 8.5% and 10% is for Daimler Truck already a huge achievement. And believe me, we are fighting for every single dollar at the end of the day, and nothing better than being at the upper end of that guidance.
Maybe just as a follow-up then. So you mentioned you have a high -- a very high order book. Does that cover the second half entirely? Or there is still -- are you still taking some orders that would fall into this year? Is it just supply chain, the uncertainty? Or are there other potential moving parts?
Daniela, I would say there's an industry-wide enigma. Everyone is completely sold out and every -- and nobody has opened the order backlog for next year. And still, we have a positive order intake.
How does that work out? That works out that in our backlog, we have reserved slots for key customers. And those key customers are now placing their firm orders. So what it means always, with the specs of the truck and the exact delivery days and so on. And that's the order intake we show here.
I don't see any risks that we are fully booked from the market side until the end of the year. You are fully right on the supply side, it's still a daily battle. Nothing big, yes, so it's nothing to complain about, nothing to worry about. But I don't envy anyone working in a production, whether in North America or Europe, to fight every day to get the trucks out in the hands of our customers who want and need those trucks.
The next question comes from Miguel Borrega from BNP.
A couple of questions for me. First, I just wanted to understand how you're thinking about order slotting for 2024. Do you plan to reduce lead times relative to 2022 or 2023, even? And if that's the case, does it mean lower volume order intake into 2024? Or since supply chains are now easing, you've got a better control over your production, so you'll become less restrictive and orders will grow? That's my first question.
Okay. So regarding 2024, as we said, the order book for the U.S. is not open. The order book in Europe is open just for the first quarter. But when we talk to customers these days, they are so confident that we will see another good year in 2024.
How it exactly will play out, it's too early to judge, but we are far away from any kind of crisis or recession when it comes to the truck industry. Regarding your question on lead times, look, we don't plan for lead times because the customers want -- if they place an order, they normally want to have the truck as soon as we can deliver.
It's fair to say that even starting earlier than 2022, the lead times are pretty long, and that's all about the supply chain situation. At the beginning, it was the semiconductors. Meanwhile, there's a lot of other parts as well.
So it's always our target to deliver the truck as soon as we can in customer hands and also give a very precise assumption when the truck is available also for our bodybuilders that the body can be on the truck. So we haven't steered the lead time in a way that it's longer. We try to do that as soon as possible. And it all depends on the supply chain.
As Martin rightfully said, yes, the supply chain has eased, but still, we have more than 100 suppliers under very strict watch what's going on there. And you can imagine that it's still a very tight situation. Every week something happens, and we watch it very carefully. And the lead times are very much determined on the question, how stable supply chain will be also in 2024.
Great. And then maybe can you talk about what you've seen so far from your customers as you take orders for 2024. I guess this is more for Europe. Any difference in customers? Do you think customers are more cautious? Do you still see books being filled quickly? Are customers taking further price increases? Can you talk a little bit on what you're seeing?
Yes. So let me talk about Europe. When we opened the order book, the orders came in quickly. But it's also fair to say, I would call it, it's a kind of a normalization on a still very high level. So that's, at least, the feedback, a, we will see from customers; and b, we saw with the order intake.
Well, price increases, we do not talk about price increases towards 2024 for obvious reasons. But we watch very carefully, like we did last year, what's going on, on the raw material side, what's going on in energy prices and what's going on in inflation, and all of that will be baked into our pricing strategy for 2024.
And then my last question has to do with your current backlog. I understand you're basically full for 2023. So assuming costs remain relatively stable, any reason why gross margins will go down in the next few quarters? Or will you be able to maintain that price cost spread throughout the year?
So there are two things you have to consider, three things maybe. In the first half, I would say, what's even surprisingly stable on the supply chain, and it's not only volume piece, but it's also the cost piece. So one thing we watch very carefully, as I said earlier, and Martin said it as well, is what's going on in the supply chain.
If the supply chain would stay as stable as it was in the first half, there is not only a volume topic, but also a cost topic. So at the moment, we are a little bit more cautious on that one. We've seen some developments. So we expect some additional costs in the second half.
The second one is inflationary costs are increasing month by month. So there is a cost increase in the second half what we expect compared to the first half. So these are two of the elements we watch very carefully for the second half.
On the pricing side, on the other hand, we increased quite significantly. But as we are basically sold out for the rest of the year, pricing will remain stable. And as I said, we are looking then towards a pricing strategy for 2024.
The next question comes from Nicolai Kempf from Deutsche Bank.
It's Nicolai Kempf from Deutsche Bank. I have two. First one is on the cash generation. And you did achieve a good free cash flow, but working capital was, again, a headwind. Do you expect it to change already in the third quarter or rather in the fourth one?
Nicolai, if you have -- and I know you did. You followed us in the past. We have here a kind of an industry cycle in the first half. Especially in the first quarter, our stock tax go up, and this is more like filling a pipeline, we have, especially in Europe, a pretty long pipeline towards the end of the year when we traditionally close the factories somewhere in the week starting before Christmas. We empty that pipeline, which has a huge positive cash effect, and that will happen this year as well.
So to answer your question precisely, I see the biggest impact in the fourth quarter. So in the third quarter, it will be more or less the normal cash conversion rate in the fourth quarter, then comes on top of the reduction of the inventory. So for the full year, and then it's for the year-over-year comparison, we'll see the normal good to very good cash conversion rate you are used from Daimler Trucks.
Okay. Understood. And my second one and final one is on the supply chain. You did mention significant improvements, but still there are some issues here and there. Can you give some color what are the current issues to see in the supply chain?
I mean, one color is, and it's our own factory. We had a rainstorm in Castle, which -- or hailstorm, which destroyed the roof of a really crucial production facility. And then we have the 3, 4 days interruption of axle production, without axle you can't produce a truck. And we have still so tight supply chains, any interruption then immediately has an impact in the production of trucks. And we have a similar situation with one supplier, the name I don't want to mention, who has to upgrade his machine pipe and can't deliver in the U.S. from time to time some materials which then had a result of 1 or 2-day closure of a plant until we have enough, I want to say the part name, enough parts to have a stable production again. So these are the minor things.
But once you clearly work on your maximum production capacity, every single interruption costs you then 200, 300 trucks. And it's extremely difficult to catch up then with those 200, 300 trucks. It's easier when you're in a normal year, where you can put in a Saturday or so and then catch up. Therefore, this is the uncertainty.
We have our buffers for that in our planning. So I'm confident that it -- that we make it. But it's a headwind/tailwind game every single vehicle month.
Our next question is from Klas Bergelind from Citi.
So the first question I had was on orders. And the order book is yet to open fully for 2024. You've opened for Europe already for the first quarter. You have to open North America here in September.
But I wanted to focus a bit on Asia, where orders can be weaker than I expected. If you could talk through whether this is underlying weakness or also order book timing? And the reason why I ask is I thought that the timing of opening for 2024 was more an North America-specific issue.
Klas, we have in Asia, two developments, I would say. A, the market demand in Asia, which is volume-wise, one of the biggest markets, as you probably remember, is rather weak. So that's the one reason. And the second reason is, like in the U.S., we haven't opened the order book for Asia, for Japan, especially. So we have exactly the same situation here. And that's also the reason why we see relatively low orders. I've seen low orders in the second quarter. It's the same situation like in North America.
Okay. No, that's clear. My second one is on the implied ASP, and we talked a little bit about this in Boston. But like all euro reporting names, at least on growth, you will have a negative FX effect, which implies that ASPs in the second half, at least according to my model, almost 10%, which is a big step-up versus the first half year-over-year.
Previously, you said that the carryover on pricing coming out from what you've done before is low single digits. So I'm just trying to understand again, you're kind of gap here. If you can explain the step-up, whether it's after-sales mix or something else?
What we've seen in the first half was a very -- well, what are basically the drivers. It's pricing, so that should be rather stable. Aftersales, you normally see in the -- at least in the fourth quarter, lower aftersales mix because basically, we lose half a month at the end of the year. So that's one effect. And then we had -- from a mix perspective, very strong mix in the first half compared to the second half. The U.S. business pretty strong. So these are the elements why the first half was a little bit stronger on that one.
All right. Yes, it looks like ASP is going up even further in the second half, but I'll come back to you on that. My third and final one is on the product mix. You talked about the bridge Jochen, is that more heavy due to the medium duty in the quarter? And to what extent is that sustainable here into the second half?
I would say that on the mix effect, it's more the regional distribution, which has a bigger impact at the moment, especially the strong numbers in the United States. And if Asia gets stronger in the second half, that's a bigger impact. I do not see too strong shift from medium-duty to heavy-duty. That's not a big impact. It's the regional one.
Next question is from Shaqeal Kirunda from Morgan Stanley.
It's Shaqeal Kirunda from Morgan Stanley. Congratulations on a great result. So your peers are increasingly commenting on a stronger 2024, driven by a good U.S. economy and infrastructure expenditure from the Jobs Act and the IRA.
So to what extent do you expect the same? And how does that compare to your expectations for Europe in 2024?
I mean, Shaqeal, as Jochen said earlier, it's too early to do a final -- to already give an estimate for 2024. However, we are certainly in discussion with our key customers. We give the vibes out of the market, and you are fully right that the U.S. customers are still optimistic. However, we always say we work here on an extremely high level, yes.
So to be optimistic on a high-level, normally we believe -- we stay at the same level like this very good year. Europe, it's a far more diverse picture. It's country by country. We have a huge export business out of Europe into the Middle East, to the entire world. So here we see a strong -- a good order intake, as Jochen stated, for the Q1.
We have to see for Europe now, how does the second half look? I'm certainly optimistic too for the second quarter in 2024. But these are all the things which, at the moment, you get the vibes. And then, call it, September, October, you get more hard facts.
So when we meet again for the Q3 results, we certainly have a better, more precise outlook for 2024. But at the moment, I would say it won't be a bad year next year.
That's very clear. And I suppose with respect to orders in Europe right now, is there any degree of normalization, which you're noticing? And if so, in which sectors is that? Which kind of customers?
I would see a normalization, as I said earlier. What does normalization means? Normalization is far way from any kind of recession or a weak market. But we have seen, especially this year, we'll see a very strong European market. So we expect this normalization. Normalization means also that supply and demand is more in line. And that's mainly because of supply also gets more stable despite all the problems we talked about.
The demand, overall, in Europe, I think there's not a specific segment where we see a spike or really low orders. It's just a normalization across the segments. And then also from a regional distribution, there's not a market where we say we have a real problem on the orders. It's, overall, a normalization, but still on a very good level.
And may I add here because it crossed my mind when Jochen used the word normalization? In my younger years, I was responsible for the products in Europe at one time. And we had a KPI, which is called on-time delivery.
I would say, in the last 4 years, we stopped even looking at that because it would be 0. So normalization would mean we go back to an on-time delivery promise, which is very important for all the bodybuilders, which is important for the shippers of trucks and so on.
So I'm glad once we go back because I could see some more efficiencies in the entire value chain, and that would benefit everyone, from the supplier, to the OEM, to the customer. So normalization is good, not bad.
So ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for your questions and for being with us today. Thank you very much, Martin and Jochen for answering the questions and taking the time.
Now as always, IR remains at your disposal to answer any further questions you might have. We are looking forward to staying in touch with you. Have a great day. Enjoy the summer and stay healthy. Take care. Goodbye.
[Break]
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to this conference on our second quarter results of 2023. On this conference call, I would like to welcome Martin Daum, CEO of Daimler Truck; and our CFO, Jochen Goetz.
This morning, we published our press release and the Q2 presentation on our website. I assume that most of you have followed today's analyst conference call just prior to this media Q&A. Martin Daum will briefly explain the most important facts and figures of the second quarter and our business outlook. Following this, we look forward to your questions.
Throughout today's recorded presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. Let me just mention a few housekeeping notes.
The whole call is conducted in English. So please be so kind to ask your questions in English as well. The operator will explain the procedure for registering your questions again in a moment. And our conference call will end approximately at around 10:15 a.m.
So Martin, the floor is yours.
Yes. Thank you, Jorg, and welcome from my side to everyone on the call. It's a pretty great moment for us at Daimler Truck to present the figures of the second quarter. It's a record quarter for our company. We increased nearly in every metric. We sold, compared to prior year, by 9% more units, 131,880 trucks to be precise. Our revenue was increased by 15%. And then our results increased to EUR 1.428 billion, which represents a 10.3% return on sales. It's the very first time that this company has double-digit second quarter results.
I want to use the opportunity to thank every employee. I know how tough it was, especially in the production side to get that amount of trucks out into the market, into the hands of our customers who urgently needed those vehicles. It was an immense task, and well done fighting to the last day to support that really great result of our company.
We have an outlook, which we shared with the public, about some 2 weeks ago when we raised our expectations not just for the overall company, but for every industrial segment. We have Buses, Asia, Mercedes Trucks and North America. Everyone pitched in with increased profitability following that path.
We had then our Capital Market Day 3 weeks ago in Boston, where we showed to the public, we are on track in 2023. We confirm our 2025 ambition and we have a future in mind, where we're not just a profitable company, but we are a growing company. And when you bring growth in revenue and growth and profitability together, you have a really great company.
We are an icon of the German industry, and we'll continue to lead this very important market, the market of commercial trucks. Because without those, the world would stop. We are here to support all who keep the world moving.
And now I'm really curious about your questions. I'm ready to answer to them together with Jochen Goetz, my trusted CFO, who is on my side, and we take your questions.
Yes. Thank you very much, Martin. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the Q&A session. I will address the questionnaire by name, but please be so kind to introduce yourself and state your media outlet at the beginning. Take your time for your questions and ask them slowly and clearly. [Operator Instructions]
The operator will now explain the exact procedures. Thank you very much.
[Operator Instructions]
Okay. Now we start. The first one to ask a question is [ Alexander Glus ] from Poland.
The result for the half year is very good, but how could you comment the changing situation on the European economy, not only European, but in many countries? I mean the costs are rising everywhere, and this may affect your next results in next quarters.
I mean, first of all, Alexander, we're coming from overheated economy, which causing especially in our business, a lot of trouble. So we go back, what we say, normal and normal is good. That's the same volume we have, but I would say in a little more orderly way. So the overheating is going backwards. I don't see too much of a decline.
The reasons are the following. First of all, trucks are essential. When you listen to my last sentence, without trucks, the world stops moving. And if I look back what happened in the last couple of years, we have, especially in Europe, an older park -- older substance of trucks, which needs to be replaced by better trucks. So I would say that will carry it -- and can carry at least a little bit longer time.
And so we get positive vibes similar out of the United States. We get positive vibes -- and so we go with the growing confidence into 2024. We are absolutely confident for 2023. We stated it several times. We are sold out 2024. It's too early to call, but it won't be bad.
Okay. Next one is [ Markus Klausen ] from Dow Jones.
I have one question about supply chain. You said that the problems have eased somewhat. But can you say which materials -- input materials are still affected this year? And the second question belongs to the delivery times. How long are they at the moment? I think 1 year is normal.
So on the supply chain, it's right. We have seen first and second quarter a rather stable situation on supply chain. And so stable doesn't mean it's everything is walk in the park. We still have a lot of interruptions on different suppliers. But so far, we are capable to manage that without a too big impact on the sales volume.
But the situation we see at the moment is that still -- and I mentioned this morning in the analyst call, it's more than 100 suppliers we watch very carefully because they produce at peak capacity, and they have done that over the last 2 years, and now it's really getting difficult.
Maintenance is necessary. In some cases, you saw problems with machines and tools and the suppliers. So it's really all over the place. It's no longer semis only, where we have the problems, it's in a lot of materials at the same time.
And the second one on the delivery time. Well, first of all, our target is always to get a truck out of the door and in the hands of the customer as soon as we can. But that very much depends on how stable the supply chain is, not only from the material itself, but also how precise we can predict when a truck is ready for the bodybuilder, when a truck is ready for transportation. So that's our #1 goal, to stabilize the situation and the preconditions for the supply chain.
One year is a far too long delivery time for a truck in normal times. We have seen that over the last 18 months because of the supply chain. But normally, we should be capable to deliver a truck within 3 months.
Okay. Next one is. Yllonna [indiscernible].
Yes, I had one question on your explanation about the order intake with the books not opened yet in the U.S. being the reason for the decrease. Can you remind me what was the trajectory time-wise last year? Because in the year-to-year comparison, does it mean that order books opened earlier last year?
And the other question is, I mean, everybody is wondering since now several quarters that the economy is not hitting this business, which is meant to be very dependent on cyclical developments. How can you explain that? Is it still the pent-up demand from the COVID crisis? Or has there anything else changed structurally?
Thanks for those questions. First of all, it's clear for the industry, everyone tells you everyone is sold out for 2023, and nobody has ordered -- opened the order books for 2024. The first question is, why do we see orders at all?
That is because, and I think everybody else is doing the same. We have pre-reserved slots for long-term key customers, and they now finalize and specify their trucks shortly before they are built. So these are the orders we show today.
The next thing is when we opened the order book for a given period of time, and we did it recently for the European business for the first quarter, then you normally get a huge push in the first couple of days from orders which are preprepared by dealers, by key customers and you get them in and you have a couple of real great days.
And then this -- those slots are filled, at least the ones which are not pre-reserved, and then the pre-reserved slots are filled then over the next couple of weeks.
The big impact, and if you follow us in the past, was always when we started in the United States. We once did it that we really opened it up for everyone unlimited. And I remember it was August 2021, and then we got the stampede. We got more orders in one day that we can build in a quarter. And that is unhealthy.
So we started last year with a fairly good and balanced sophisticated system where dealers got allocation. Customers got the allocation. Product, different bottom types got the allocation, so we could stretch it out a little bit better. So the big fleets are the decisive one, when they place their order. Normally, they place it in October. Recently, they have it became -- that we get the first orders in September. So I would say, September, October are the crucial months where we can see the trend for 2024.
When the exact date is? That varies. Sometimes there are events when you start that. Sometimes it depends what -- public holidays or whatever. It's somewhere in September, and it will stretch out into October. So when we have our next quarterly call, the Q3 call, I think we can get much more flavor and much better flavor to the whole thing.
The second part of your question, why is there not a recession in the trucking industry? First of all, I'm glad that there is no recession in the trucking industry. And I think that is because we don't have any overswings in the last years. And I would say everyone, especially our suppliers, are producing at the peak of their capacity. And that straightens out the market, in my opinion, significantly.
And we, as OEMs, are certainly benefiting from that. And our customers -- I mean, for a customer, it's good to have a normal cycle as well because after some years, when the trucks get replaced, it has impacts on the used truck market and it's more stable.
You have the new truck business more stable as a used truck business 4, 5 years down the road. And therefore, we don't complain about the situation as -- at the moment, we just like it. And I think our customers and suppliers like it, too.
Okay. Next one in line is Alexander Jungert from Mannheimer Morgen.
Nearly 2 weeks ago, Works Council Chairman, Michael Brecht criticized the constant cost-cutting measures. He said that the employees are tired and feel a great pressure. So can you understand that? That's the first question.
And the second one is, are you really investing enough to do well in the long term?
Alex, thanks for your question. So first of all, I think we laid out right at the beginning, even back in 2019, that one of the weaknesses of our business is that we have a too high-cost base. And with that, we are especially weak in times when market conditions are favorable.
As we just discussed, we still have very favorable market condition, that's good, but we have to prepare ourselves for times when markets are tough. We call it more resilience, and that's still to be proven. We achieved already a lot, but more to come. And that's the reason why we are continuously working on fixed cost and improve our position.
Well, obviously, that's a lot of effort, and it's not always easy to make this decision. So I understand that Workers Council is not always like that, but it's pretty obvious that we still have to improve here.
And then second, when it comes to investments, we watch very carefully what are the technical development in the market, be it propulsion energy -- propulsion technology, be it better electricity battery fuel cell. And I think we are well-positioned in all of these areas and do the investments, which are necessary to master the transformation. To answer the question is, yes, we invest enough to have the right products we need to have long-term success.
So currently, there is no one else on the line. If you want to take a question, just do it right now because we have still a little bit of time. Anyone has questions?
If not, then let me have the last word. And I would say that just continuing to what Jochen has told, we are investing a lot. We have nearly EUR 3 billion every year, which we are investing. Product is key for Daimler Truck. In the past, it's key today and it will be key in the future.
We spend a considerable amount of time to get great products out. You see that in the launches we had in the past and the launches we'll have in the future. Next one in line will be our long-distance electric eActros. I think we have exciting products out there. The results from the customers and from the trade press on our new vehicles is exceptional.
I would say one of the highlights of the last quarter was the launch of our eCanter, which is already the third generation. And I have talked to many dealers and customers who tell me, that is, at the moment, the best electric commercial vehicle money can buy.
Yes, because there's a lot of experience going into that vehicle. Great performance, great execution on the truck, I would say, to invest to less is the last thing. I'm fearful of [indiscernible] issues to invest in the wrong stuff, which then burden the company for the future.
I would say we have done a lot of really good decisions. We have a clear growth path going ahead. And we all know that growth does not come just by hoping and sitting and waiting. Growth comes through actions and doing things different. And here, I would say this is a company who is willing to do so and stepping in, and I think there will be continued flow of great news coming out of Daimler Trucks, not just this quarter, but in the quarters to come as well. Thanks for listening.
Yes, dear, colleagues. We have reached the end of our conference call. Thank you very much for taking part. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact the Daimler Truck communications team. That is at your disposal. I wish you all a good day. Until the next time. Thank you very much.