Scania has announced a record result for the first nine months of this year, a 15 per cent increase over the same period in 2016 with the Swedish Volkswagen subsidiary revealing net sales of the equivalent of $AUD13.4 Billion (SEK 86.4 billion Swedish Krona)
Scania president and CEO , Henrik Henriksson, attributed much of the growth in sales to ] demand for the company’s new truck range and said the service trend remained positive.
“The period was affected by a high investment level, higher production costs for running double product ranges and a less favourable market mix. In spite of this, the company managed to present strong earnings for the first nine months of 2017,” Henriksson said.
The company had earnings of $AUD1405milion (SEK 9,080 million) which gave it an operating margin of 10.5 per cent.
The report went on to say that in addition to continued high cost levels, currency started to impact negatively on earnings In the third quarter.
Order bookings for trucks rose by 27 per cent in the first nine months compared to the same period in 2016.
“The strong demand for trucks continued in Europe, the trend in Latin America is positive and we see increased demand in Brazil from very low levels., while in Eurasia, the trend in demand is positive, mainly due to Russia’s continued recovery,” he added.
“In Asia, demand increased thanks to strong sales efforts, particularly in China and Iran. While order bookings in buses and coaches were strong overall and increased by two per cent compared to the same period in 2016,” he said.
In the company’s engine business the demand trend is positive in all segments and service revenue amounted to a record high $AUD 2.74 billion (SEK 17.5 billion), an increase of 11 per cent.
Scania Financial Services reported operating income of $AUD134 million (SEK 862 million) and credit losses remain at low levels.
The company also reported that In September the second stage of the introduction of its new generation trucks, the Scania XT range was launched with trucks aimed at construction and forestry industries.
In October the European Commission revealed its decision concerning alleged inappropriate exchange of information by Scania, and the company says it contests the findings and will appeal against them and emphasised that it has co-operated fully with the European Commission during the investigation period.