You have to congratulate Paccar for making headway during
the previous quarter; its core North American market is still down, and its
revenues from overseas business now exceed 65 per cent. Paccar's recent
announcement that it will commit to a five per cent capacity increase at its
Eindhoven facility is proof positive of no little confidence in Bellevue.
Paccar outpaced the analysts' estimates, and returned eps of 86c. But others are less sanguine. Fiat sees the 2009 European heavy truck market as falling between five and ten per cent in the West, and flat in the East. Latin America may be slightly up, it may be flat says the Italians.
Meanwhile, over at Volvo, again the headlines are good, the backstory rather less so. Once again, North America and Japan were the only dark spots on an otherwise near spotless second quarter for Volvo, which posted a 28 per cent increase in net profits.
But as with Renschler a couple of weeks ago, Johansson is now pointing to falling order intakes in Europe, and, if the two biggest players in the European market are now on the same page in terms of a market downturn, then now would seem like a good time to take notice. Going back to Paccar, the UK market - crucial to its overall European well-being - now seems to be stumbling. DAF has a secondary problem here; if it has got its currency position wrong in terms of €uros and Sterling, then all sorts of merriment may well ensue with DAF in the UK.
So, enjoy it while you can. We expect third quarter figures to be rather less palatable, and, by the end of the fourth quarter, pessimism should rule supreme. And with that, we'll go and listen to what MAN has to say. Where did you say that Euro V EGR engine was again Anton?