Volvo India may export trucks, buses to Sri Lanka

Exports to Bangladesh prove a success

Heavy vehicles major Volvo India is evaluating exporting its buses and trucks to Sri Lanka. The company is now integrating its training and technical processes with Sri Lankan dealers. Currently, Volvo vehicles are imported from Sweden by Sri Lankan dealers.

Volvo's decision to hand over the small Sri Lankan market to the Indian arm follows reasonable success in Bangladesh.

Volvo India, which commenced exports of buses and coaches to Bangladesh in 2003, has managed to sell over 30 vehicles.

Ulf Nordqvist, Volvo India managing director said, "Now it is a matter of cornering customers' orders in Sri Lanka. We have the go-ahead from headquarters to market there."

He said, the results in Sri Lanka will be of importance, as the company is evaluating other neighbouring markets as well. He refused to speculate on the potential of the market or what numbers the Indian arm will bag there in the coming months.

Numbers, however small, will add to the Indian operations, which after missing targets initially is projected to grow between 50 per cent and 100 per cent in each of the business segments this year, marking the company's highest growth since its inception in 1998.

This year, the company has already sold 300 trucks compared to 140 last year. It expects to sell 300 buses for the full year as opposed to 200 last year. Besides its forays into new markets, the role of the Indian arm is all set to expand. The component and IT sourcing are set to grow exponentially.

This year, component and IT sourcing will nearly double to ¤26 million and ¤6 million respectively. Added to this, the company has announced its intent to start an engineering centre in Bangalore during the next year.

Nordqvist said that the engineering work presently done elsewhere will be offshored to India. This will be in addition to outsourcing more IT processes. Currently around 220 people spread across several IT majors work on Volvo's fresh projects or develop existing systems.