North American truck operations were still under pressure in the first quarter and “competitors’ large inventories of used trucks continued to hamper prices and sales of new trucks,"
said the Volvo Group in its first quarter financial report.
The company’s worldwide truck sales totaled 26.56 billion krona ($2.66 billion) for the quarter, a 13% decline from first quarter 2001 after currency adjustments.
Deliveries of Volvo trucks in Europe were down 43%, due mainly to the production ramp-up of the new FH and FM models. The company said it has more than 20,000 orders for the new trucks, but initial production start-up resulted in delayed deliveries and hurt first quarter sales. Deliveries of Renault trucks over 16 tons were down 11% from a year ago. In North America deliveries of Mack trucks were down 31%, and deliveries of Volvo trucks were off 19%.
Volvo bus sales were down 1% from last year. Volvo CE business was off 12%, hurt by the North American recession as well as economic turndown in Europe. Volvo Aero’s sales were hurt by Sept. 11 effects on aerospace services.
Volvo Group sales for the quarter totaled 40.39 billion krona ($4.04 billion), down 11% from first quarter 2001. Operating loss was 362 million krona compared with a loss, after one-time effects, of 817 million krona a year earlier.
Volvo said that there are firm signs of recovery in most of its markets, but the company warns that political tensions in the Middle East and rising oil prices add concern about the strength and timing of economic recovery in North America.