Daimler Truck reported Thursday that it plans to build a new manufacturing facility in the United States and is evaluating several potential locations. The company expects to start construction later this year, with production scheduled to start in 2029. On Friday, the company reported weaker-than-expected quarterly orders across business areas, which overshadowed upbeat comments on profitability at its North American arm and sent the truck maker's shares 4% lower. The owner of U.S. truck brand Freightliner said its second-quarter order intake grew 27% from a year ago to 74,448 units, which was fewer than analysts had expected. "Order intake for every segment missed consensus by a large degree," Bernstein analysts said in a note to investors. North America recorded order intake of 35,379 vehicles, 17% below consensus, while Mercedes-Benz Trucks booked orders for 33,850 units, missing expectations by 21%, according to Bernstein. The unit reported an adjusted return on sales of 8.4% for the second quarter. "What we really see now after the first half of the year is that we're getting out of the so-called freight recession in the United States," Chief Financial Officer Eva Scherer told journalists. Freight rates in the U.S. have risen about 30% since the start of the year, while freight volumes are up modestly, Scherer said. The company expects volumes to improve further in the coming quarters, she added. Self-driving truck technology developer Torc Robotics, a subsidiary of Daimler Truck, has been testing autonomous truck technology in Texas. According to a 2023 report in freight industry magazine Transport Topics, Torc Robotics has targeted a 2027 market launch. Torc Robotics, based in Blacksburg, Va., has been incorporated in Arkansas since June 2021. Information for this article was contributed by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Comments