Volvo AB has announced a massive 59 per cent rise in second-quarter net profit and said that it was scrambling to meet surging demand for its trucks globally, particularly in North America.
The Swedish truck maker said net profit for the period ended June 30 was $AUD1.35 billion (9.22 billion Swedish kronor) compared with $AUD885.3 million (SEK5.81 billion) a year earlier, beating analysts’ expectations of $AUD1.17 billion (SEK7.7 billion).
Volvo Group’s sales rose 18 per cent to $AUD 15.78 billion (SEK103.62 billion and the group’s operating margin grew to 11.9 per cent from 9.6 per cent, the company said.
“Our truck business had a good sales development and increased profitability despite a continued stretched situation in parts of the supply chain, primarily in North America,” said Chief Executive Martin Lundstedt.
“In North America demand increased strongly together with our suppliers we are working hard to meet demand and reduce delivery times to our customers. However, given the strong demand, we expect the supply-chain constraints to remain in the near term,” he said.
Truck orders grew 10 per cent to 60,656 units in the quarter while deliveries rose 14 per cent to 59,571 trucks, Volvo said. Truck sales in the period rose 16 per cent to $AUD 9.92 billion (SEK65.16 billion), it added.
Volvo maintained its full-year market forecast for retail sales in some of its major markets. It still sees the European market at around 310,000 heavy-duty trucks, the North American market at around 300,000 and the Brazilian market at 45,000 units.
In China the forecast for the combined global medium- and heavy-duty truck market has been increased to 1.25 million trucks from 1.15 million, while in India the forecast has been raised to 405,000 from 370,000. Overall demand in Japan is expected to stay roughly flat this year.