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Rainer Schmueckle, the former head of Daimler Trucks North America, has left parent company Daimler AG after heading the German company’s Mercedes-Benz auto unit for five years, Bloomberg reported.

Fourteen months into his job as CEO of Daimler Trucks North America, Martin Daum said the truck sales market is still bad — although it is improving — but his real challenge is trying to figure out when sales will return to a robust pace.

The top Daimler Trucks executive in North America last week defended use of selective catalytic reduction to meet federal emissions requirements, rebutting claims by Navistar Inc. that SCR engines do not meet environmental standards because their emissions controls can be overridden by using plain water in place of a urea-water solution.

Daimler AG said Tuesday that it earned $2.74 billion (2.1 billion euros) in the second quarter, matching a forecast from earlier in July, the Associated Press reported.

Daimler AG said Friday it expects to announce a second-quarter profit of 2.1 billion euros ($2.71 billion), due in part to improved results in its truck business.

Daimler AG signed an agreement with Beiqi Foton Motor Co. on Friday to set up a 6.35 billion yuan ($940 million) venture to make medium and heavy duty trucks in Beijing, as the two seek to boost sales in China, Bloomberg reported.

Daimler Trucks North America won a new series of three-year labor contracts covering three North Carolina truck plants making heavy- and medium-duty Freightliners and parts for the trucks.