Scania has announced that it has returned a stellar first half result for this year revealing it had increased its net sales to a record high equivalent to $AUD 11.75 billion (SEK 77.3 billion) for the first six months of the year, which represents an increase of 17 per cent on its first half 2018 results.
The Swedish truck maker increased its operating income increased by 36 per cent to $AUD 1435 million (SEK 9,444 million) while its cash flow amounted to $AUD553 million (SEK 3,638 million) in vehicle and service sales.
Scania president and CEO Henrik Henriksson, said higher vehicle and service sales volume, currency effects and a more favourable market mix contributed positively to the earnings result.
“The phase-out of a double product ranges also improved the cost situation in production, even though some increased costs remained, related to the new truck generation and to handling the backlog in customer deliveries from previous flow disruptions,” said Henriksson.
“The measures put in place to normalise the higher cost situation are continuing and the global production system is adapting to a more normal situation,” he added.
Henriksson went on to say that demand for trucks in Europe remains strong while the demand trend in Latin America is reflected by the continuing recovery in Brazil.
“Demand in Eurasia was impacted negatively by a slowdown in Russia while n Asia, orders fell in comparison with the previous year mainly in the Middle East,” he added.
“Demand for buses and coaches slowed somewhat due to lower order intake in the Middle East while in the engines business area, demand fell slightly compared to the previous year.”
Henriksson added that there is still a high capacity utilisation in customers’ vehicle fleets and service revenue amounted to a record high $AUD 2.17 billion (SEK 14.3 billion) during the first half of the year representing an increase of 9 per cent while Scania financial services maintained the trend of increased profitability and reported operating income of $112 milion (SEK 737 million).
Interestingly Scania claimed the lead in the European market for trucks over 16 tonnes registering just over 19.4 per cent of the European market in the first half of 2019.
“The sales success is due to the good reception for our new truck generation range, while our R 450 won the prestigious Green Truck Award for the third year as the most fuel-efficient and sustainable commercial vehicle in its class,“ he said.
