Mercedes-Benz Cars sales up 4 percent in Oct

German carmaker Daimler AG said its Mercedes-Benz Cars division saw a 4 percent increase in global sales in October.

Daimler, based in Stuttgart, said the division, which includes the Mercedes-Benz and Smart brands, delivered 97,700 cars during the month compared with 93,800 in October 2008.

The Mercedes-Benz brand alone saw a 7 percent increase to 88,400 vehicles compared with 82,500 in October 2008. The compact Smart brand, however, saw an 18 percent decrease to 9,300 cars.

Daimler said sales in China of Mercedes-Benz Cars rose 84 percent to 6,800 cars for the month, and that it had already sold more cars there in 2009 than it had for the whole of 2008.

“Mercedes-Benz Cars will continue to grow at a dynamic rate in China, and we expect the increase for 2009 as a whole to amount to more than 50 percent,” Joachim Schmidt, the head of sales and marketing of the Mercedes-Benz Cars division said in the report.

The Asia-Pacific region including China saw a 34 percent increase to 14,100 deliveries. South Korea and Australia saw 63 percent and 22 percent increases, while Japan saw a 7 percent decline.

The Mercedes-Benz brand alone had the best month of the year in the U.S., and Canadian sales of the brand also did well, Daimler said.

Overall, the company saw a 9 percent increase in the U.S. with 18,900 vehicles delivered. North American sales including the U.S. were up more than 10 percent to 21,600 vehicles.

Mercedes-Benz Cars sales in western Europe including Germany fell 2.3 percent and German sales fell 7.2 percent.

For the year to the end of September, the Mercedes-Benz Cars division’s sales amounted to 923,300 cars, a decline of 14 percent from a year ago.

Shares of Daimler were 1.5 percent higher at euro33.15 in late Frankfurt trading.
Source:[businessweek.com]