Volvo wants to build more trucks in Africa

NAIROBI — Volvo’s trucks division is seeking to boost market share in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to as much as 18 per cent from about two per cent, as the East African region’s economic growth outpaces the sub-Saharan Africa average.

The Swedish maker of trucks and construction equipment agreed to partner with Kenyan car dealer NECST Motors to set-up 20 new workshops across the region, a parts warehouse and an assembly line for Volvo trucks in Kenya’s port city of Mombasa, Volvo Trucks president Claes Nilsson said. That followed Volvo’s announcement that it will start assembling cars in India later this year.

“In all markets we want to be above 10 per cent,” Nilsson said in an interview in the Kenyan capital,

In all markets we want to be above 10%. Eventually we want to get to those levels that [seen] in Morocco, South Africa Claes Nilsson, President of Volvo Trucks

Nairobi. “Eventually we want to get to those levels that you see in Morocco and South Africa.”

Kenya will follow those two countries as the third in Africa to have a Volvo Trucks assembly plant. East Africa’s largest economy is expected to grow 5.3 per cent this year, compared with a sub-Saharan Africa average of 2.6 per cent, according to the International Monetary Fund. Uganda and Tanzania are seen expanding five per cent and 6.8 per cent, respectively.

“We believe very strongly in the growth of the Kenyan economy and also the surrounding countries of Tanzania and Uganda,” Nilsson said. “We are pleased to see what the government is doing in terms of investment in infrastructure, which is a necessity for customers to utilise the benefits of our products.”

Volvo trucks are assembled in 15 countries across the globe and last year the company sold about 103,000 trucks worldwide, Volvo president for Southern Africa Torbjorn Christensson said during the interview. The company last year completed a reorganisation to cut in annual spending by 10 billion kronor ($1.1 billion) from 2012 levels.