Scania year-end report

Amid allegations against Scania raised by Swedish media house (SVT) citing internal investigation reportedly finding evidence of misconduct between 2013 and 2016 in India, the premium CV maker, in its yearend report for 2020, has announced that it experienced truck sales rebound starting mid-2020. While the Indian transport minister Nitin Gadkari is said to filed a defamation case on Sweden’s Sveriges Television and Germany’s ZDF for reports alleged that Scania delivered a luxury bus to a company linked to Gadkari’s son for bagging supply contracts in India, the Swedish company has announced that in the fourth quarter of 2020, vehicle deliveries (read trucks) were almost back to the previous year’s level. Exiting the Indian bus market and shutting down its bus body making plant at Bangalore citing low demand in 2018, Scania has, in its statement, mentioned that cash flow in vehicles and services remained strong due to its demand-driven output principle in production and efficient inventory management. Averred Henrik Henriksson, President and CEO, Scania, “Our structural cost transformation efforts continued in the fourth quarter whereas in financial Services, customers’ need of rescheduling their payments of financial contracts returned to more normal levels in the second half of 2020 and by the fourth quarter.” Stating that a vast majority of customers had returned to their previous payment plans by the end of 2020, Henriksson drew attention to the fact that data gathered from connected Scania vehicles has shown continued good transport activity, particularly in the long haulage, distribution and construction segments, and also in city buses. The Swedish CV maker continues to sell heavy-trucks – mining tippers in particular, in India through Larsen & Toubro.