Scania reports surpise second quarter losses
Swedish truckmaker Scania was hit with unexpected losses in the second quarter due to weak demand, and warned that no recovery is yet in sight.
Scania said it had a net loss of 150 million kronor ($ 19.7 million) for the three months to June, after a year-earlier net profit of 3.04 billion kronor.
Analysts had forecast a net profit of around 222 million kronor for the period after the company posted first quarter earnings of 179 million kronor.
Revenue fell 40 percent from a year earlier to 14.43 billion kronor.
"During the seasonally weak third quarter, Scania foresees a continued low level of demand," it said.
Evli Bank analyst Michael Andersson told Dow Jones Newsires that analysts "maybe... were a bit too optimistic because of the good first quarter."
"There's still too many new trucks out in Europe," he said. "For sure, there won't be a European recovery this year. The question is what will happen next year? If there is a bounce back then I'm afraid it will be very small."
Faced with the worst slump in years, Scania has cut costs like may automakers. In May, it introduced a four-day work week for about 12,000 employees in Sweden, reducing their pay by 10 percent.
It had some 32,600 employees at end-June, with nearly 4,000 having left the company since September 2008.
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Scania said it had a net loss of 150 million kronor ($ 19.7 million) for the three months to June, after a year-earlier net profit of 3.04 billion kronor.
Analysts had forecast a net profit of around 222 million kronor for the period after the company posted first quarter earnings of 179 million kronor.
Revenue fell 40 percent from a year earlier to 14.43 billion kronor.
"During the seasonally weak third quarter, Scania foresees a continued low level of demand," it said.
Evli Bank analyst Michael Andersson told Dow Jones Newsires that analysts "maybe... were a bit too optimistic because of the good first quarter."
"There's still too many new trucks out in Europe," he said. "For sure, there won't be a European recovery this year. The question is what will happen next year? If there is a bounce back then I'm afraid it will be very small."
Faced with the worst slump in years, Scania has cut costs like may automakers. In May, it introduced a four-day work week for about 12,000 employees in Sweden, reducing their pay by 10 percent.
It had some 32,600 employees at end-June, with nearly 4,000 having left the company since September 2008.
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