Volvo Construction Equipment has finished 2017 in good health with the Q4 sales results revealing a 28 per cent increase for the quarter.
 |
The strong last quarter result also pushed Volvo CE’s sales figures up 31 per cent for the full year and contributed to parent company Volvo Group achieving its highest annual sales and operating income in its history.
The company says concerted efforts to improve competitiveness coupled with increased demand, particularly from Asia, were the main drivers of the improved figures.
“The performance program to strengthen Volvo CE’s competitiveness combined with increased market demand yielded good results in 2017,” Volvo CE president Melker Jernberg says.
“Volvo CE improved profitability and gained market share in several of our stronghold segments of excavators, wheel loaders and haulers.”
The fourth quarter of 2017 saw Volvo CE’s net order intake increase by 48 per cent, largely driven by demand from China and North America. Completed deliveries also increased by 49 per cent over the same period, again driven mostly by China. Overall demand increased in China by 74 per cent over the previous year, particularly in excavators and wheel loaders.
Demand in Europe was up 16 per cent during the quarter, helped by growth in the UK, France, Italy, Germany and a rapidly improving Russian market.
North America was up by 10 per cent over last year, helped by greater demand for excavators, while South America saw a gain of 17 per cent, from low levels and mostly from markets outside of Brazil. The Middle Eastern market continued to slow, weighed by weak demand from Saudi Arabia.
Volvo says it has begun 2018 in a confident and positive mood. In January, the company announced it was entering the rigid haul truck market with four new models.