Fuso expects 3% increase in global sales

Fuso expects 3% increase in global sales

Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corp. said on Monday that it will
strengthen cooperation with its parent company, DaimlerChrysler,
to raise efficiency while announcing that it expected its 2005
sales to rise 3 per cent from last year.

The troubled commercial vehicle maker 85 percent owned by
DaimlerChrysler said it expected global sales of 185,000 units in
the 2005 fiscal year, which will end March 31.

Japan-based Mitsubishi Fuso said it forecast domestic sales of
about 65,000 units, a 6-per-cent rise from last year, and a
record in overseas sales at 120,000 units, a 1 percent increase
from 2004.

Meanwhile, it planned to step up its integration into
DaimlerChrysler. A new unit, Fuso Financial Services, which was
established with DaimlerChrysler Financial Services, will offer
financing and leasing services exclusively for Fuso customers
beginning in January.

At the same time, the automaker plans on March 1 to become the
first Japanese automaker to fully integrate its dealerships into
the parent company with the merger of 26 dealers into the
corporation.

Mitsubishi Fuso finds itself in the second phase of a
restructuring that follows a 2000 scandal that revealed it hid
vehicle defects for more than two decades to avoid recalls.

The final recall to clean up those quality issues marked the
end of the first phase and the start of the second, which
includes a further integration with DaimlerChrysler's Commercial
Vehicles Division.

President and CEO Harald Boelstler said the company would be
profitable in 2005.

"These (sales) figures show the trust of our customers in Fuso
and the potential of our brand over the next years," he said in a
statement.-- DPA