Volvo Trucks India will resume exports to South Asian countries from this year, though it has completely stopped exports to South Korea because of new emission norms.

Exports to South Korea were stopped because of Euro 5 norms prevalent in the country, while India requires only Euro 3 or Euro 4 norms. But with India now being a hub for South East Asia, it will supply trucks to neighbouring countries like Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Volvo Trucks India President, Mr Somnath Bhattacharjee, told Business Line that the company expects to post between 18 per cent and 20 per cent increase in volume sales during the current calendar year, compared with the previous year. He said Volvo Trucks at present has a 70 per cent share of the heavy duty truck segment which is above 400 HP. Most of the customers are from the defence, aviation, construction and mining sectors.

Mass market truck segment

He said sooner than later, Volvo Trucks might enter the mass market truck segment which is in the 250 HP or below segment. The current capacity of the Volvo Trucks plant near Bangalore is about 2,000 trucks per shift a year. The indigenisation level of these trucks is about 30 per cent, while the rest of the parts are imported from Sweden.

“We are currently investing in distribution and customer support because of the need to strengthen these aspects of our business,” Mr Bhattacharjee said. There is also a possibility of launching two new models in the high performance segment during this year, he said.

He said the company was able to carve out a niche for itself because of its focus on giving lifetime profitability driven products for its customers. “We have performed well even during recession because of the value our customers see in our products,” he said.

Wins competition

Meanwhile, an Indian driver, Mr Gosula Venkata Suresh, has won the Volvo Asia Fuelwatch competition held in Sweden recently, a press statement from Volvo Trucks India said. The company has so far trained about 25,000 drivers in India on issues of safety and fuel efficiency.

Volvo Trucks India is part of the VE Commercial Vehicles Ltd, a Volvo Group and Eicher Motors joint venture. Its products include the FM range of tippers and rigid trucks.

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