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