DaimlerChrysler expects a truck boom in the key US market to continue until at least 2007, the head of its market-leading commercial vehicles business, Andreas Renschler, told Reuters.
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The group’s US-based Freightliner truck business forecasts strong demand will continue and might not even slow down in 2007, he said, but added: “There is a possibility that the US market will not be as strong in 2007 as it is now.”
He reportedly said he thought sales growth there around 5 percent this year was possible.
Reuters noted that, amid a global truck boom, the commercial vehicles division boosted first-quarter operating profit 166% to €714 million ($US871 million) including a €276 million settlement from Mitsubishi Motors Corp over faulty trucks – revenue rose 29%.
Reuters added that Navistar International Corp , which makes trucks and school buses, had also given a bullish outlook, forecasting retail sales volume in the United States and Canada would be 5% higher in its fiscal year to the end of October than it had estimated last December.
