UPDATE 1-Daimler CFO sees $775 mln raw material bill rise

(Adds comments, background, share price)

STUTTGART, Germany, May 15 (Reuters) - German carmaker Daimler AG's (DAIGn.DE) expects its raw materials bill to rise by 500 million euros ($775 million) this year, but it will cut costs elsewhere to more than offset the drag on earnings.

"We want to cut materials costs this year" to be able to boost underlying operating profit as planned, Chief Financial Officer Bodo Uebber told a news conference on Thursday, suggesting the company could save money by sharing more components across more models.

Uebber said he expected the euro/dollar exchange EUR= rate to drop to an average $1.45 over the next 12 to 24 months, offering some relief from the pain of the euro's strength.

But there was a 40 percent probability that the currency would remain between $1.55 and $1.60 over that period, he said. The euro is trading at around $1.55 now.

Expanding purchasing or production in the dollar zone was difficult to master in the short term, he said, suggesting Daimler would consider an expanded supplier base in eastern Europe in the medium term.

Uebber held out hope that a rebound in the North American heavy truck market could emerge in the third and fourth quarters of this year, but said this outlook was still uncertain.

Daimler's U.S. truck unit, Freightliner, will remain profitable this year but will cut 1,500 more jobs with the idea of hiring staff back in three to six months, he added.

Uebber said Daimler had had no problems with risk provisions for its U.S. leasing and financing business despite a U.S. economic slowdown that has hit the used car market.

"We are on a conservative path," he said, adding it was handling valuations for used cars better than some rivals.

Arch-rival BMW (BMWG.DE), the biggest premium carmaker, booked a 236 million euro charge for this in the first quarter.

Uebber said Daimler was in no rush to resume share buybacks.

"Measures to optimise our capital structure will return when financial markets have improved in a sustainable way," he said.

Flush with cash after selling a majority stake in ailing U.S. carmaker Chrysler last year, Daimler had bought back just under 10 percent of its shares for nearly 6.2 billion euros by the end of March.

"The main goal of the share buybacks is to bring up earnings per share," he said. It aimed to reduce its cost of capital to 8 percent at the most.

Daimler, whose cash cushion has allowed an opportunistic approach to debt markets, plans to raise around 3 to 6 billion euros this year and up to 15 billion euros next year, he said.

Daimler shares eased 0.3 percent to 51.37 euros by 1140 GMT, while the DJ Stoxx European car sector index .GDAXI slipped 0.4 percent. (Reporting by Hendrik Sackmann; Editing by Quentin Bryar) (michael.shields@thomsonreuters.com, Reuters Messaging: michael.shields.reuters.com@reuters.net; +49 69 7565 1266)) ($1=.6446 Euro)