After a couple of years of subdued business impacted by general slowdown, Volvo Trucks expects to see revival of demand for heavy duty trucks in the mining sector fuelled by its growth and from increase in demand from the infrastructure.
The Swedish global truck major sees boost in the sales volumes as the Government initiates steps to fix the problems in the mining sector and also step up efforts to accelerate the growth of the infrastructure segments.
Addressing a press conference here, senior Volvo executives said that the GDP growth is expected to pick up this year to about 5.5 per cent to 6 per cent from 4.5 per cent last year. Such a growth will help garner higher volumes from the construction sector.
Vinod Aggarwal, CEO of VE Commercial Vehicles Limited, said, “Volvo trucks sold about 1,100 trucks in 2011 but this was down to about 700 last year due to impact of mining ban and slowdown in the infrastructure sectors. However, we see volumes getting better this year as many projects of about 200 coal mines are expected to be operational again requiring special trucks.”
Volvo Trucks has installed capacity to assemble 2000 trucks per annum near Bangalore. Unless the volumes go up past the 5,000 truck per annum mark, it does not make sense to have an integrated manufacturing unit, he said.
Philippe Divry, Senior Vice-President, AB Volvo & VE CV Board Member, highlighted the efforts made by Volvo through FuelWwatch 2014 the importance of the best driving practices to improve fuel efficiency in mining operations.
The tests were conducted in the mining tracts of Singareni Collieries Company Limited.
The fifth edition of FuelWatch 2014 competition sought to chose best drivers from key Volvo tipper customers operating in the mining segment. The accent of this initiative is to highlight the importance of fuel efficiency and environment care.