Mercedes 2009 Annual Report Download - page 120

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Mercedes-Benz Cars 63%
Daimler Trucks 31%
Mercedes-Benz Vans 4%
Daimler Financial Services 0.2%
Investment in property, plant and equipment 2010–2011
in %
Daimler Buses 2%
Opportunities and risks
Our forecasts for the years 2010 and 2011 are based on the
assumptions that political conditions will remain generally stable
and that the worst of the global financial and economic crisis
is indeed behind us, and that the hesitant upward trend of world-
wide demand for motor vehicles will continue in 2010 and 2011.
Additional opportunities and risks may result from the develop-
ment of currency exchange rates and raw-material prices, as
well as from our assessments of the future market success of our
products.
Most of the risks for our business arising from fluctuations in
currency exchange rates during the year 2010 have already been
hedged with the use of suitable financial instruments. For exam-
ple, for the US dollar and the British pound the hedging ratio is
approximately 60%, and for the Japanese yen it is even higher.
We see the chance of a more favorable business development for
Daimler in the years 2010 and 2011 if the global economic crisis
is overcome significantly earlier than generally expected, with the
result that automotive markets return to their magnitudes of
2007 and 2008 more quickly.
In the medium term, additional growth opportunities will be
presented above all by the expansion of our presence in Asia and
Eastern Europe. Our local activities there will enable us to uti-
lize those opportunities. Together with our local partners, we are
increasing the production of cars and vans in China, and are
also establishing a plant for the production of trucks and truck
engines. We are also expanding our production facilities for
cars
and setting up a new truck plant in India. In Russia, we are
intensifying our partnership with truck manufacturer Kamaz,
and in Hungary we have started construction of a new car plant.
Furthermore, there will be considerable opportunities in the medi-
um term also from the fundamental change in automotive tech-
nology that is highly likely to occur in the coming years. If we suc-
ceed in our aim of playing a pioneering role for motor vehicles
and concepts for sustainable mobility with innovative technologies,
this should give us additional growth potential in terms of both
unit sales and earnings.
Capital expenditure
In the coming years, we will continue to concentrate our invest-
ment budget on projects of particular importance for the market
success of our products. But due to the new requirements placed
on our products and the need to offer sustainable solutions for
the mobility of the future, we will invest a total of more than €8
billion in property, plant and equipment in the years 2010 and
2011. Above all at Mercedes-Benz Cars, but also at Daimler Trucks,
the planned investment in property, plant and equipment will be
significantly higher than in the prior years. At the Mercedes-Benz
Cars divisions, the focus will be on advance expenditure for new
vehicles such as the successor models to the A- and B-Class, the
new M-Class and the new SL. The biggest project is the expan-
sion of our model range in the A/B-Class segment: Solely for that
purpose, we will invest approximately €1.4 billion at our sites
in Rastatt and Keçskemèt, Hungary. Substantial investments are
also planned for new fuel-efficient and low-emission engine
families. Daimler Trucks will mainly invest in the successor gener-
ations of existing models in the coming years. Another area
of investment is the construction of a truck plant in India. At
Mercedes-Benz Vans, the focus of investment will be on upgrad-
ing the Vito and Viano van models. The key projects at Daimler
Buses are advance expenditure for new models.
in billions of €
Investment in property, plant and equipment
8.1
5.1
2.5
0.3
0.2
0.02
2.4
1.6
0.6
0.1
0.1
0.01
2010-2011
Daimler Group
Mercedes-Benz Cars
Daimler Trucks
Mercedes-Benz Vans
Daimler Buses
Daimler Financial Services
2009
2008
3.6
2.2
1.0
0.2
0.1
0.04