BERLIN (Reuters) – Daimler Trucks CEO Martin Daum said the truckmaker, set to spin-off from Daimler in December, will undoubtedly sell less than it could in the coming year as chip shortages hamper production.
“We will certainly be delivering less than we could have sold, and that also applies to next year,” he said at a roundtable with journalists on Tuesday, echoing recent warnings from competitors like Traton that profits could fall in the second half.
“It’s a fight over every chip,” Daum said.
While passenger vehicle producers like BMW or Daimler can increase prices to offset chip losses, truckmakers do not have this flexibility, he said.
Still, the company has committed to a 15% fixed-cost reduction from 2019 levels by 2025, and cuts are “well underway”, he said. A concrete update will be provided at the company’s Capital Markets Day on Nov. 11.
(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee; Editing by Maria Sheahan)
