Mercedes-Benz: India's AMG Boom Masks Labor Unrest and Eastern Shift as Stock Hovers Near Lows
Veröffentlicht: 07.07.2026 um 18:41 Uhr, Redaktion boerse-global.de
Mercedes-Benz is weathering a storm at home while celebrating an unexpected bright spot thousands of miles away. The German automaker's push to cut costs has sparked protests in Bremen, where 4,000 workers took to the streets on July 3, and triggered a backlash among 90,000 employees facing the cancellation of a bonus payment worth 18.4 percent of a monthly salary. Yet in India, the luxury brand is on a tear — AMG sales surged 50 percent in the first half of 2026 and the share of electric vehicles in that market doubled.
The bonus freeze, labeled a "transformation component," was set for a July payout but has been deferred to next year. The IG Metall union and works councils have condemned the move, and work stoppages in Bremen have already disrupted production. Management, meanwhile, is pressing for greater flexibility — even floating a return to the 40-hour week without full wage compensation. The stakes are high: around 12,000 people are directly employed at the Bremen plant, with another 17,000 jobs at regional suppliers tied to the site.
Cost pressures extend beyond payroll. Daimler Buses recently marked the 10,000th bus body built at its Czech facility in Holýšov — a Setra S531 DT — and confirmed plans to consolidate all European body production for Setra and Mercedes-Benz there by 2028. The shift is designed to slash fixed costs, but it raises questions about future investment in Germany. Already, supplier Lear has moved 35 positions from Bremen to Poland, and the IG Metall is demanding that the company commit to battery-cell production in Germany to offset industrial job losses.
Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Mercedes-Benz?
India offers a counter-narrative to the gloom. While weak demand in China continues to drag on global results, the subcontinent delivered a record first half for Mercedes-Benz. The AMG performance brand saw a 50 percent jump in sales, and the EV penetration rate doubled. These figures bolster the company's strategy of chasing high-margin luxury customers in emerging markets, though the broader Asia slump is still expected to weigh on the adjusted return on sales of the car division.
On the Frankfurt exchange, the stock has been drifting. On Monday it closed at €45.35, recovering 3.2 percent over the week, and by Tuesday it had edged up another 1.19 percent to €45.90. Yet the year-to-date loss stands at roughly 26 percent, and the shares are just over 6 percent above the 52-week low of €42.64 touched on June 29. The 200-day moving average of €54.75 is a distant 17 percent above current levels, while the relative strength index of 43.7 points to neither oversold nor overbought conditions.
Investors will get a clearer picture on July 14, when management holds an analyst call to preview second-quarter results. The full half-year report follows at the end of July, with free cash flow in the industrial business and automotive margins under the spotlight. Until then, the tension between labor strife at home and luxury sales in India will keep the stock in limbo — and the path of the cost-cutting drive beyond the July protests remains the bigger question for the second half of the year.
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