March 4 (Reuters) - Volkswagen's truck unit Traton gave a cautious outlook for 2026 on Wednesday, with no margin improvement seen at the midpoint of the given range even as European orders should help sales numbers.
While the German truckmaker expects unit sales development to be better than last year's 9% drop, its forecast for adjusted operating return on sales, at 5.3% to 7.3%, is broadly on par with the 2025 margin of 6.3%.
Unit sales performance is seen between a 5% decline and a 7% rise, the
company said.
Analyst Fabio Hölscher from Warburg Research said the guidance was cautious despite a resilient year-end rally, mainly driven by Traton's MAN brand in Europe.
An implied operating profit outlook of around 2.8 billion euros ($3.3 billion), as calculated by Citi, is 15% below market expectations according to the brokerage.
Traton's shares fell 1.3% in early trading.
The truckmaker reported a 7% decline in 2025 sales revenue to 44.1 billion euros, while its adjusted operating profit slumped to 2.8 billion euros from 4.4 billion euros in 2024, reflecting difficult market conditions shaped by U.S. import tariffs and weak demand in Europe.
However, incoming orders increased by 7% last year, driven by a 32% uptick in Europe. In contrast, customers in North America were still holding back due to uncertainty caused by U.S. tariff policies, Traton said.
"The primary strategic concern is the transition of (Traton's U.S. brand) International Motors back to profitability amidst shifting U.S. trade barriers," Hölscher said in an emailed comment.
Traton said it planned to offset additional costs from tariffs as much as possible through mitigation and cost measures.
($1 = 0.8618 euros)
(Reporting by Simon Ferdinand Eibach and Bartosz Dąbrowski in Gdansk; editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak)
