BERLIN (Reuters) -Daimler Truck reported a 15% rise in earnings before interest and taxes to 1.01 billion euros ($1.04 billion) in the second quarter, far exceeding analysts' expectations as high demand and positive exchange rate effects lifted revenues.
The truck and bus maker saw an adjusted return on sales of 8%, from 8.1% last year. Revenues reached 12.1 billion euros, beating expectations of six analysts polled by Refinitiv SmartEstimate of 11.8 billion euros.
Daimler Truck maintained its full-year outlook for the Group of 7-9% adjusted returns and 48-50 billion euros in revenues, but lowered expected adjusted returns for its Trucks Asia business to 1-3% from 3-5% previously because of the impact of supply chain constraints in China on the second quarter.
"Supply and not demand is still the limiting factor," a statement said, adding the company's order backlog remained high.
The statement forecast that supply chain bottlenecks would decrease in the second half and said the company did not foresee production stops due to a lack of natural gas from Russia.
Daimler Truck was less exposed than other truckmakers so far to supply chain disruptions from Russia's invasion of Ukraine earlier this year in part because, unlike competitors, it did not source wire harnesses from the country.
Competitors Traton and Iveco have reported falling second quarter earnings despite rising revenues, due to supply chain issues.
Daimler Truck has repeated multiple times that it was confident it could pass on rising costs of energy and raw materials to customers amid strong demand, though Chief Financial Officer Jochen Goetz said the company would reduce prices again once costs fell.
($1 = 0.9720 euros)