Volvo India to export mining trucks to Indonesia, Vietnam

Indonesia and Vietnam may well be the next export markets in Southeast Asia for the truck-maker Volvo India. The company is planning to export a few hundred trucks to South Korea too.

On the sidelines of a press conference convened here to explain the Volvo adventure project, Eric Leblanc, managing director, Volvo India, said with the growth in mining sector in Southeast economies, there was an increase in demand for mining trucks capable of carrying huge load.

Though the cost of labour and other costs in India and Thailand are the same, the former was competitive in terms of duty structure, he added. Volvo has an assembly plant in Thailand.

Volvo India exports trucks and buses to the Saarc countries like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Early in 2005, about 150 mining trucks were sent as a first batch to South Korea from Volvo's assembly plant in Hoskote, Bangalore. The price of each mining truck is about Rs 55 lakh.

The other export hubs for the company, excluding Sweden, its home turf, would be Belgium and Botswana. The Swedish truck-maker has joint ventures in China, and is also mulling setting up a manufacturing base of its own in China for gear boxes.

Talking about the Indian economy, Leblanc said growth was seen in heavy commercial vehicles and light commercial vehicles segments with the development of highways. However, there was a slowdown in the medium commercial vehicles segment, he added.

The company is planning to launch heavy tractor in a couple of months.

The 'Volvo adventure project 2006' prize was bagged by TVS Higher Secondary School, Madurai for their project on 'Wastage of drinking water'. Around 50 schools in the country participated in the contest. Volvo adventure, an international educational program, is a partnership between Volvo and United Nations Environment Programme.

Leblanc said the simplicity and practicability of the water conservation method undertaken by the students of the school won them the prize.

He also said that students of the school would get a chance to attend the global finals of the Volvo Young Environmentalists Awards in Goteburg, Sweden. The trip would be sponsored by the company.