Daimler Posts Q2 Profit; Sees Significantly Higher FY21 Results, Despite Chip Shortage

German automaker Daimler AG reported Wednesday a profit in its second quarter, compared to last year’s loss, with strong volume growth across all divisions.

Looking ahead, Daimler anticipates revenue and EBIT in 2021 to be significantly above the prior year’s level. Meanwhile, worldwide shortage of supply of semiconductor components will affect the business also in the second half of the year.

In Germany, Daimler shares were trading at 70.76 euros, up 1 percent.

At the Mercedes-Benz Cars unit, supply shortage of semiconductor components will affect unit sales also in the third quarter. Mercedes-Benz Cars unit sales could be in the magnitude of the second quarter or below. Full-year unit sales are now expected to be at prior year level, while previous expectation was significantly above the prior year.

Daimler sees a gradual normalization of economic conditions in the important markets. The world economy is expected to recover from the pandemic-related weakness of the year 2020, driven by increasing availability of effective vaccines, among other things.

Further, Daimler said its planned spin-off of Daimler Truck, including significant parts of the related financial services business, will be examined before the end of 2021. The transaction and the listing of Daimler Truck on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange are on track and expected to be completed before year-end 2021.

Before the spin-off, the company will reclassify Daimler Truck as discontinued operations.

Regarding the trading, Ola Källenius, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and Mercedes-Benz AG, said, “The entire industry is currently struggling with longer delivery times, which unfortunately also affect our customers. We are doing what we can to minimize the impact. Given the high demand for our vehicles, delivery to our customers has top priority.”

For the second quarter, net profit was 3.70 billion euros, compared to a loss of 1.91 billion euros a year ago. On a per share basis, earnings totaled 3.36 euros, compared to a loss of 1.87 euros in the prior year.

EBIT, a key earnings metric, was 5.19 billion euros, compared to last year’s loss of 1.68 billion euros. Adjusted EBIT, reflecting the underlying business, was 5.42 billion euros, compared to last year’s loss of 708 million euros.

In the quarter, revenue grew 44 percent to 43.5 billion euros from the previous year’s 30.2 billion euros. Total unit sales increased 36 percent to 736,400 passenger cars and commercial vehicles from 541,800 reported last year.

Sales by the Mercedes-Benz Cars & Vans division grew 29 percent to 619,600 vehicles, generating revenues of 28.2 billion euros, higher than last year. Mercedes-Benz Cars’ sales climbed 27 percent and Mercedes-Benz Vans’ sales were up 37 percent.

The Daimler Trucks & Buses division recorded 91 percent rise in unit sales to 116,800 vehicles. Unit sales by Daimler Trucks surged 94 percent and the growth was 52 percent in Daimler Buses.

At Daimler Mobility, new business increased 23 percent to 17.2 billion euros, driven by strong sales developments at the industrial business.

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