Scania has joined AB Volvo, Daimler and Fiat in expressing nervousness about the coming months in terms of the European truck market.
Scania saw profits rise by 51 per cent to SEK 3.04 billion in the second quarter, making a mockery of analyst estimates of SEK 2.36 billion. But it isn't all pretty, with the UK, Spain and the Netherlands leading a 48 per cent decline in Western European order intake. The UK and the Netherlands happen to make up a fair bit of Paccar's European business, and so we're having a little bit of difficulty squaring its recent assertions that the EU market remains a splendid place, but hey ho.
On Friday, MAN told us that it was on target to achieve its previously stated profit targets, and that revenues too were on course to meet full year expectations. After that, and the simultaneous translation got a bit - well, unsimultaneous. All told, we remain confident in our pessimism, with the European market looking set fair for a marked downturn in late 2008 and 2009. What remains to be seen is how great the mitigating effect of Eastern Europe - we think a little - and Russia - we think a little bit more - may prove to be. On balance, the total number looks set to fall fairly considerably.
But for the moment, we're smiling, as we've also just realised that MAN's Bloomberg stock code is MAN GY, something that makes it seem all worthwhile.
Comments (1)
Joining Scania with AB Volvo, Daimler and Fiat will create nervousness about the coming months in terms of the European truck market.
Posted by Anders | July 29, 2008 10:10 PM
Posted on July 29, 2008 22:10