Daimler claims that its operations in China have stabilized after the country came out of quarantine and that March sales have reached a level that gives confidence to the group.
Daimler reported a 70% drop in first-quarter operating profit, but is confident that the situation will improve as pandemic restrictions are gradually eased and lifted. First-quarter earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) was 617 million euros ($669.45 million), down from 2.8 billion euros in the year-earlier period, of which 510 million euros came from the Mercedes-Benz cars unit.
The German group claims that operations in China are now stable, after a level of sales in March that gave the Germans hope.
“In China, we sold 50,000 vehicles in March alone. We are confident, ” said Markus Schaefer, board member and head of production for the Daimler Group.
In the first three months, Mercedes sold 477,400 cars, without specifying the result for the Chinese market. Last year, Chinese customers accounted for 29% of total sales, or roughly 694,200 Mercedes-Benz cars.
Starting this Monday, cars started to roll off Daimler’s assembly line again in Germany, after the Sindelfingen and Bremen passenger-car plants resumed production of E- and S-Class vehicles.
