Daimler Group Reports Loss

The German Daimler Group recorded a net loss of 2.34 billion euro in the first half of this year, compared to a net profit of 2.72 billion euro in the same period last year, as sales collapsed because of a strong decline in demand in the car market.

Auto sales by the carmaking giant – owner of Mercedes-Benz – decreased by over 23% in the first half of the year to 38.29 billion euro from 50 billion euro in January-June period of 2008.

Daimler sales dropped by about 270,000 vehicles to 732,800 cars in the first half of this year compared to over one million units sold in the corresponding period last year.

Daimler eliminated over 17,000 employees and had 257,000 on staff as of June 30th. At last midyear, Daimler had 275,000 employees.

Mercedes-Benz, which generates over half of the business group’s revenues, registered a decrease of 22.7% in sales in the first half to 19.63 billion euro from 25.41 billion in the same period of past year.