Scania going for pole position

At its Capital Markets Day on 17 September (today), Scania presented its preparations for the next market upturn phase. “We believe that the downturn has levelled off, even if the activity level remains low among our customers,” said Leif Östling, President and CEO of Scania.

At the event, Scania also unveiled the new R-series, which will ensure the company’s leading position in trucks for the vital long-haulage segment. “We are working hard to reduce our costs in response to weak demand, but at the same time we are preparing for the next upturn phase. Today’s launch will further strengthen our product range. Together with continued streamlining of Scania’s production system and service network, this will provide a great opportunity for strong and profitable growth when the market eventually turns around,” Mr Östling said. “The strong focus on costs and cash flow will lay the groundwork for a more efficient organisation going forward. Among other things, the experiences from our four-day week in the European organisation will contribute to more efficient working methods in the future. Implementing the principles for continuous improvements – Scania Production System (SPS) – will result in increased productivity at the offices as well as within the sales and services network.” “We are increasing our production compared to the second quarter, but at the same time the third quarter is seasonally weak due to holiday periods in many markets,” said Jan Ytterberg, Scania’s Chief Financial Officer. At the Capital Markets Day, Scania also presented its strategy for the bus and coach segment, which aims to further increase the degree of industrialisation in the production of complete buses and coaches by means of closer collaboration with selected bodybuilding companies. This will result in higher product quality and opportunities to increase service content, for example through service agreements. Scania’s business unit Engines is also well-positioned for the future with engines complying with the new emission legislation for the off-road segments that will come into force in both Europe and the US as from 2011. “As a result of the new range of SCR-engines that was presented earlier this year, we have received an increasing number of inquires from large OEMs from all over the world that today are not using Scania. Some of these OEMs have now chosen Scania engines for their off-road products as from 2011,” says Martin Lundstedt. For further information, please contact: • Hans-Åke Danielsson, Press Manager, mobile +46 70 346 88 11 • Per Hillström, Head of Investor Relations, +46 70 648 30 52.