Truck parts suppliers won’t meet Wall Street expectations

Dana, ArvinMeritor and Eaton said low production in heavy trucks, consumer trucks, SUVs and the weak Euro dollar are the main reasons third quarter earnings would be below Wall Street expectations.

ArvinMeritor warned investors to expect 45 cents a share compared to analysts’ estimates of 60 cents, while Dana expects 46 cents a share instead of 86 cents. Despite anticipating it will meet analyst expectations in the fourth quarter, Eaton predicted profits would be down about 45 cents from the expected $1.75 a share for the third quarter.

Demand for new heavy and consumer trucks has slipped as a result of high fuel prices and a surplus of used trucks on the market. Truck sales have slipped about 4,500 units a month this summer because of low trade-in values.

However, since freight volume is expanding faster than economic growth and truck market fundamentals still remain good, analysts are predicting production and orders should return about halfway to early 2000 levels by the end of this year.

-With files from www.truckinginfo.com