In a clear indicator that VW’s Traton commercial vehicle spin off will move to strenghten ties with Navistar in the US, it has announced that its Scania brand and Navistar intend to study a mutually beneficial relationship to cooperate in providing vehicles and services for mining operations in Canadian.
Traton has a roughly 18 per cent share in Navistar and its CEO Andreas Renschler has said that the intention is to expand the holding and take control of Navistar in the future, although he revised this view in July saying that a full take over of Navistar may not be the right course of action.
VW launched Traton on to the stock market in an IPO earlier this year and indicated it would buy a larger stake in Navistar with some of the vast capital the share offer delivered.
Andreas Renschler apeared on the stage at the North America Commercial Vehicle Expo in Atlanta last week to announce that the companies have agreed on a plan to import a limited number of Scania heavy duty off-road trucks for trials by selected operators in late 2020 in the Canadian mining industry.
The co operative agreement will entail using ‘Scania’s deep knowledge of mining vehicles, consulting services and lean operational support’ in combination with Navistar´s dealer network, after sales and service capability.
The aim will be to provide strong customer support to global customers in the mining sector and trucks for heavy haul, general goods transport, fuel delivery, water delivery and personnel transportation.
Scania has a track record of providing high performance products and service solutions for mining operations and there are more than 10,000 Scania heavy duty trucks in service in mining operations, in South America and Asia according to Traton. However Scania has no profile in North America and this toe in the water exercise could change all this.
“Our trucks and services together with Navistar’s well-established international truck sales and service network have the potential to also make our cooperation a win-win for Canadian mining operators,” said Alexander Vlaskamp, senior vice president and head of trucks at Scania.
Persio Lisboa, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Navistar said that demand from the mining market is changing.
“Companies are exploring more sustainable solutions that improve worksite flexibility, increase uptime and reduce total operating costs. Working with Scania as a partner will help us rapidly achieve scale in addressing this unique market segment with comprehensive and powerful solutions,” said Lisboa.
Both companies will seek regulatory approval through the appropriate agencies in Canada to deliver the Scania trucks to the mining customers.
The companies say the cooperation will build on the existing fruitful strategic alliance between Traton and Navistar, which was initiated in 2016 and has been gradually developed since then.
Andreas Renschler said at the NACV show in Atlanta that Traton and its alliances between its brands MAN and Scania as well as with Navistar are on track to save aroudn $US 500million over five years
