Mercedes 2015 Annual Report Download - page 73

80 B | COMBINED MANAGEMENT REPORT | ECONOMIC CONDITIONS AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
In this partially very tense global economic environment,
currency exchange rates were very volatile. Against the US dollar,
the euro fluctuated between $1.05 and $1.21. At the end
of the year, the euro was about 10% weaker than a year earlier
at $1.09. Once again, the range of fluctuation of the euro to
the Japanese yen was quite substantial, with a corridor of 126
to 146 yen to the euro. By the end of the year, the euro had
fallen by 10% also against the yen. Against the British pound,
the euro ended the year with depreciation of approximately 6%.
The euro gained against some currencies such as the Turkish lira
and the Canadian dollar, in some cases by double-digit per-
centages, with the highest gain of over 30% against the Brazilian
real. Compared with the ruble, the euro had gained nearly
12% by the end of the year, with substantial volatility during
the year of between 53 and 82 rubles to the euro.
Automotive markets
The continuation of below-average global economic dynamism
in the year 2015 was also reflected by the development of
global demand for cars. The increase of about 3% in demand
worldwide is to be regarded as quite solid with currently strong
markets, whereby regional differences were very substantial.
While China and the traditional markets of the United States and
Western Europe followed a relatively positive development,
demand was very weak in some major emerging markets.

B.06
From a very strong starting point, the US market grew again
by nearly 6%, surpassing its previous record from the year 2000
with sales of approximately 17.5 million cars and light trucks.
Demand in Western Europe also developed very positively.
The market recovery that had started in 2014 became more
dynamic and led to significant growth of about 9%. It must
be emphasized that this market growth took place on a broad
basis: double-digit growth was recorded in Spain and Italy while
the three major markets of Germany, the United Kingdom
and France each posted significant growth of between 6 and 7%.
The initial impression of the Chinese car market is still positive,
with growth of approximately 9% and the biggest contribution
in absolute terms to the increased worldwide volume. But these
figures conceal the significant period of weakness that the
market went through during the summer months. The Chinese
government finally initiated countermeasures, granting tax
reductions on the purchase of small cars with engine displace-
ment of up to 1.6 liters, which were subsequently responsible
for the aforementioned market growth.
The Japanese car market contracted by approximately 10%,
after demand had been kept artificially high for several years
as a result of measures taken by the government. With the
exception of China, the major emerging markets displayed very
differing tendencies. The Indian market grew significantly
while demand for cars slumped in Brazil and Russia. Deep eco-
nomic recessions in both countries resulted in market slumps
of about 25% in Brazil and even 35% in Russia, thus dampening
the worldwide volume growth.
Worldwide demand for medium-duty and heavy-duty trucks
came under considerable pressure last year and fell by approx-
imately 11%. This decrease was also primarily due to the drastic
contraction of some major emerging markets, which was
not offset by the positive development of the North American
and European markets.
The North American market proved once again to be robust
in Classes 6-8 with overall growth of approximately 11%.
But a weakening of the market’s dynamism was to be observed
as the year progressed, at first in industrial orders received
and towards the end of the year also in sales figures.
U
nit sales growth rates 2015 in %
Global automotive markets
Passenger cars
Commercial ve
hicles
1
Cars segment includes light trucks Source: German Association of th
e
Automotive Industry (V
DA),
various institutions, S/DM
TotalWestern
Europe NAFTA region1
South
America1
Eastern
Europe
Asia
B.06
15
20
10
5
0
-10
-15
-20
-25
-30
-35
-40
-5