Volvo says worst is over; sees good pick up in India

After hitting a speed breaker in the past one year, Volvo is hoping to hit top gear by the end of this fiscal, the company says the worst is over. A large part of that growth in India is expected to come thanks to the resurgence of demand from the infrastructure and construction sectors, reports CNBC-TV18’s Sunanda Jayaseelan.

Here is a verbatim transcript of Sunanda Jayaseelan’s comments on CNBC-TV18. Also watch the accompanying video.

Volvo is looking to break fresh ground. After the construction equipment arm of the Swedish major saw net sales fall by over USD 548 million to USD 629 million for the first 9 months of this year, the company says the worst is over.

Mrityunjaya Singh, MD, Volvo India said,” Well if you would have asked us 3-4 quarter ago about when we could see a full recovery; it would have been difficult to say. But now, in another 1-2 quarters we should have seen the last of the slowdown.

That optimism stems primarily from Asian markets where sales have increased by 19% since last year. In the past, Volvo picked up a stake in Chinese company Lingong, Japanese auto maker Nissan and India's Eicher motors. It continues to be bullish on inorganic growth in Asia.

Mrityunjaya Singh, MD, Volvo India said,” Our strength is to grow on our own, but acquisitions are on our radar, look at how we have made acquisitions globally, primarily in Asia. Our global board is looking at acquisitions in Asia.”

A large part of that growth in India is expected to come thanks to the resurgence of demand from the infrastructure and construction sectors. Volvo construction equipment which sees over 40% of its overall revenues coming from the mining sector and 30% from road construction says that will improve thanks to pick up going ahead.