The turn-of-the-year rise in Class 8 orders continued into February, Traton SE CEO Christian Levin told analysts recently, and shows “that there’s a bit more optimism coming back to our customer base.” But the parent company of the International Motors brand isn’t yet ready to bring back laid-off North American workers and boost output, moves Levin and his team have made in Europe.
Traton, which also makes Scania and MAN trucks and Volkswagen vehicles, reported fourth-quarter operating earnings of about $850 million on revenue of more than $13.6 billion. Those figures were down 35% and 4%, respectively, from the last three months of 2024. But the company’s Q4 order pace showed promise for 2026: Incoming orders topped 79,200, a full 12,000 units more than the average of the three previous quarters.
Europe led the way in that upswing, but Levin said U.S. orders have followed a similar trajectory, enabling International to maintain its roughly 15% market share even as it fights the effects of the Trump administration’s various tariffs.
Traton’s leaders have called back some of the Scania employees they laid off last year amid slumping orders. That brand’s order book, Levin said on a March 4 conference call, is now “a little bit too long.” And they may do the same with MAN if current order trends persist. But they aren’t changing their operational plans just yet in North America, where they laid off 900 people last year in Escobedo, Mexico.
“We have also not decided—yet at least—to increase production capacity,” Levin said. “We are comfortable with the current lead time. Of course, this is something we evaluate every month.”
Customers placed orders for 14,266 International vehicles last quarter, a significant jump from 10,674 in Q3. Sales during the last three months of 2025 total 15,780, bringing the year’s total to more than 63,700, up from nearly 90,600 in 2024. But the increase from Q3 wasn’t enough to keep the division in the black: As Levin and CFO Michael Jackstein had signaled last fall might be possible, International posted an operating loss during the quarter—about $100 million on revenues of nearly $2.3 billion—as tariffs added to pressures from relatively slack demand.
Jackstein told analysts that International had to absorb nearly $60 million in extra costs in Q4 related to tariffs that President Trump imposed last spring but which the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled illegal. In addition, the group faced roughly $70 million in costs from the launch on Nov. 1 of Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum. Those 232 measures are carrying over into 2026, and Jackstein said Traton pushed through another “significant” round of layoffs early this year in response. But he added that the tariff burden won’t be only International’s to bear.
“We have the common understanding in the entire Traton group that we compensate here for the tariff burdens,” he said. “We work on all kinds of cost initiatives, our brands […] We are really doing the cost work. This is on top of our priority list for 2026.”
