Scania forays into heavy duty truck market in India

The Swedish company is setting up an assembly plant for trucks and buses at an investment of Rs 250 crore near Bangalore

Scania Commercial Vehicles India (SCVI), a 100% subsidiary of Scania, the Swedish manufacturer of heavy trucks, buses, coaches, on Wednesday announced its foray into on-road truck market in India.

The company has launched four new heavy trucks for on-road heavy haulage applications and over dimension cargo (pullers). The new trucks -- R 500 6x4 heavy duty puller, G 460 6X4 heavy duty puller, P 410 6X2 prime mover and P 360 4X2 prime mover – are aimed at process industries like chemicals, sensitive goods, coal and port handling operators for its trucks.

The company, which is currently marketing its heavy duty trucks for mining and construction sector through L&T, will be selling its on-road trucks independently through a network of dealers. It has appointed its first dealer -- Navnit Motors -- for Maharashtra.

"We have launched four new models for the Indian market. We have created a new niche segment in the Indian truck market with the launch of three axle 6X2 heavy haulage trucks," Henrik Fagrenius, managing director, SCVI told Business Standard.

The company has launched the on-road trial of these four models, which will be used by All Cargo Logistics of Mumbai, Sidhivinayak Logistics of Baroda, NPC Logistics of Chennai and J H Parabia of Mumbai.

Fagrenius said the company is presently importing the completely built trucks from its plants in Sweden and Holland. It plans to assemble them at its up coming plant at Narasapur near Bangalore from April 2013. The company is investing Rs 250 crore to set up its plant, which will have a capacity to produce 2,000 trucks per annum. It also intends to manufacture luxury buses from 2014 onwards, he said.

The company is looking at manufacturing 2,000 trucks and 1,000 buses within five years in India. It also plans to upgrade the facility into a complete manufacturing plant at a later stage.

V Sivakumar, director, sales and marketing, SCVI said the company will appoint dealers in Chennai and Hyderabad for southern markets and in north India in phased manner.