Full order books make the commercial vehicle manufacturer Traton optimistic.

On Tuesday, the Volkswagen subsidiary predicted an increase in sales and turnover of five to 15 percent each for the current year; the return on sales is expected to improve to six to seven percent. An important basis is the high order backlog, which already covers a large part of the annual production, explained Traton CEO Christian Levin. He therefore described the outlook for the commercial vehicle markets as robust. He referred to the ageing fleets that need to be replaced. In addition, the supply of parts should gradually improve, even if bottlenecks remain.

The figures were well received on the stock market: Traton shares gained 8.4 percent at their peak, making them the top performer in the small-cap index SDax. The experts at Jefferies wrote in a commentary that the fourth quarter of 2022 went well and the outlook was solid. Traton exceeded analysts' expectations in terms of both profit and turnover.

Thanks to the acquisition of the US manufacturer Navistar and good business with maintenance and spare parts, turnover rose by almost a third to 40.3 billion euros in 2022, which was higher than ever before. In addition, sales prices were higher: Levin said that so far, the company has managed to raise prices for commercial vehicles: "We've gotten away with it so far, but have to assume that it won't continue." CFO Annette Danielski added that the aim was to offset the rising costs.

Adjusted operating profit improved by 472 million euros to 2.1 billion euros in 2022. Danielski said it was a remarkable achievement that MAN had generated a profit of 139 million euros despite a six-week production stop. In spring 2022, MAN suffered severely from a lack of cable harnesses, which until then had only been produced in Ukraine. Production there is now up and running again. At the same time, however, alternative options had been set up, which had cost money, said the manager.

Traton boss Levin wants to reduce costs with a joint modular system. To this end, new functions have been introduced in purchasing and production. The brands remain the framework of the group, he said. "But cooperation is the basis for creating value." Scania and MAN have already made several attempts to improve their cooperation - but so far they have often failed due to their respective stubbornness.

(Report by Christina Amann; edited by Ralf Banser. If you have any queries, please contact our editorial team at Berlin.Newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or Frankfurt.Newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets)