By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Daimler (OTC:DDAIF)'s ADRs (OTC:DMLRY) shares were up more than 1% Friday after the German carmaker improved its outlook for 2021 while warning of a global semiconductor chip shortage hurting sales in the ongoing quarter.
The maker of Mercedes-Benz anticipates “group unit sales, revenues and EBIT in 2021 to be significantly above the prior year’s level.”
Daimler now expects an adjusted margin of 10%-12% from its Mercedes cars and van business, up from its previous outlook of 8%-10% growth.
The company also sees higher growth in China -- at 7.5% -- compared to the 2% to 7.5% range it predicted earlier.
Daimler’s optimistic outlook came on the back of the company riding on sales of record number of luxury cars in China and other higher-margin cars elsewhere. Cost reductions helped too.
Mercedes-Benz sales in China rose 60% to 220,520 and exceeded Europe’s where it sold 1.8% more units at 192,302.
In the first quarter of 2021, net profit was 4.3 billion euros ($5.3 billion), as much as 26 times more than 168 million euros in the same quarter last year.
Chief Financial Officer Harald Wilhelm said underlying car demand was strong and the chip shortage is holding back sales.