Mercedes 2008 Annual Report Download - page 55

Management Report |Business and Strategy |51
Daimler Trucks sold a total of 472,100 heavy, medium and light-
duty trucks in 2008, surpassing prior-year sales of 467,700
vehicles. We also succeeded in defending our leading position in
the market for trucks above 6 tons. Trucks Europe/Latin America
increased its sales once again by 6% to 170,100 units, thus setting
a new record. This positive development is primarily a reflection
of the ongoing market success of the Actros and the Axor. We achi-
eved strong growth in Brazil (+23%) and the Middle East (+90%).
Unit sales fell, however, in the NAFTA region and in Japan. The mar-
ket recovery originally expected for the United States and Cana-
da in the second half of 2008 did not occur due to the weak eco-
nomic developments. The Trucks NAFTA unit was therefore un-
able to increase its sales as planned; instead there was a decrease
to 104,300 units (2007: 119,000 units). But due to the market
success of the Freightliner Cascadia, we succeeded in defending
our leading market position for heavy trucks in the NAFTA region.
Trucks Asia reached a record level and surpassed its prior-year unit
sales by 5%, selling 197,700 vehicles. Although sales fell in Japan
by 22% to 42,000 units, this was more than offset by strong growth
in export markets such as Indonesia (+58%) and the Middle East
(+9%) (see page 94).
Mercedes-Benz Vans increased its market share in the segment
of medium-sized and large vans and further extended its leading
position. In terms of unit sales, the number of 287,200 vans sold
in 2008 did not quite match the record prior-year figure (289.100)
due to the difficult market conditions in the second half of last year
(see page 100).
Daimler Buses also achieved record unit sales in the year 2008,
selling 40,600 buses and chassis worldwide (2007: 39,000), and
successfully defended its leading market position in the segment
of buses above 8 tons. In Europe, we increased our unit sales by
11% to10,100 vehicles. Despite the increasingly difficult market
conditions in the fourth quarter, unit sales in Latin America were
at the high level of 19,500 vehicles (2007: 20,100). Sales of 7,000
units in the NAFTA region were significantly higher than the prior-
year figure of 6,100 (see page 100).
Daimler Financial Services’ business development was generally
positive in the year under review. Its global contract volume of
€63.4 billion at the end of the year 2008 was 7% higher than the
prior-year level. Several companies were consolidated for the
first time during 2008, most of them in Asia and Eastern Europe.
Without this effect and adjusted for exchange-rate effects, con-
tract volume increased by 5%. New business increased by 7% to
€29.5 billion, or by 6% when adjusted for the aforementioned
effects (see page 98).
Order situation. The Mercedes-Benz Cars and Daimler Trucks
divisions and the Mercedes-Benz Vans and Daimler Buses units
produce vehicles to order in accordance with customers’ speci-
fications. We endeavor to flexibly adjust the production capacities
of individual models to the changing levels of demand.
As a result of the worldwide financial and economic crisis and
the ongoing debate about CO2emissions, volumes of orders re-
ceived fell in the third and especially the fourth quarter of the
year, in some cases dramatically. The upcoming model change-
over of the E-Class further reduced the level of demand for
Mercedes-Benz passenger cars. In line with the current develop-
ment of demand for our products, we significantly reduced the
production of automobiles in the second half of the year. Due to
the increasingly difficult market situation worldwide, volumes
of orders received for trucks fell significantly in the second half of
the year in our major markets of Europe, the NAFTA region and
Japan.