Sweden’s truck major Scania Commercial Vehicles India Private Limited said that it plans to expand its presence in India, by setting up its independent production facility in Karnataka by 2013.
Scania India Managing Director Henrik Fagrenius said that the company is in the planning phase of finalising the land for the plant, without disclosing the details of investment.
Scania, which has been in a dealership agreement with construction major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) since 2007, has decided to build the facility from where it would assemble its products and sell it in the Indian market. “Till date, the company has sold around 650 18-axle mining trucks, each with a capacity of over 25 tonne, through the agreement with L&T,” Fagrenius said.
“Most of these trucks are being used by the mining industry, along with some of them finding buyers in the construction business as well,” Fagrenius added. Considering India as a major market, he opined that with ample reserves of minerals such as coal and iron ore in the country, there is enough scope for Scania to market its trucks here. Besides, with the promise of better infrastructure in the future, eventually, the company could contemplate rolling out many of its other state-of-the-art products, which include different kinds of trucks for both off-road and inter-city use, buses and engines.
The new facility would assemble off-road long haulage trucks, and also buses. “There are many upcoming sectors requiring these products for transportation purposes. Besides, the buses would find a market among all areas: inter-city, tour operators, airports and so on,” he said, adding that the dealership with L&T would continue. Once the facility is completed, Scania plans to annually roll out 2,000 trucks and 1,000 buses by 2015, Fagrenius said.
He added, “Scania would look at employing local talent in this venture, which would be trained to assemble the products that would arrive from Europe in knocked-down kits. We would also train the local staff in the after-sales service.”
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Scania Truck Manufacturer to set up assembly plant in Bangalore
