New heavy truck registrations in April amounted to 15,117 units, or 47.0% less than in the same month a year ago. Except for the Dutch and Swiss markets, which expanded by 33.0% and 22.1% respectively, all others contracted: the German by 32.8%, the French by 41.4%, the British by 46.4%, the Italian by 49.8% and the Spanish by 79.3%. In the new EU Member States, Polish new registrations dropped by 68.0%. Cumulative results from January to April show a 42.8% slump. Switzerland was the only market performing better than in the same period last year. The Netherlands (-24.7%), Germany (-30.2%), France (-32.5%), Italy (-41.1%), the UK (-43.2%) and Spain (-76.5%) all fell sharply. In the new EU Member States, the largest markets also plummeted, Poland by 69.0% and the Czech Republic by 55.9%.
Category: PKC Group
The total deliveries from the Volvo Group’s truck operations in April amounted to 9,196 vehicles. This was a decrease of 63%, compared with the year-earlier period.
Volvo Group
Total deliveries by market for the Volvo Group’s truck operations (Volvo Trucks, Mack, Renault Trucks, Nissan Diesel and Eicher).
|
Delivered Units |
April |
Change |
Year-to-Date |
Change |
||
|
Volvo Group |
2009 |
2008 |
|
2009 |
2008 |
|
|
Europe |
4 052 |
13 262 |
-69% |
18 648 |
49 337 |
-62% |
|
Western Europe |
3 670 |
10 366 |
-65% |
17 288 |
39 327 |
-56% |
|
Eastern Europe |
382 |
2 896 |
-87% |
1 360 |
10 010 |
-86% |
|
North America |
1 128 |
3 689 |
-69% |
5 214 |
10 826 |
-52% |
|
South America |
868 |
1 547 |
-44% |
3 111 |
5 101 |
-39% |
|
Asia |
1 978 |
4 346 |
-54% |
9 669 |
18 924 |
-49% |
|
Middle East |
34 |
155 |
-78% |
2 476 |
5 014 |
-51% |
|
Other Asia |
1 944 |
4 191 |
-54% |
7 193 |
13 910 |
-48% |
|
Other markets |
1 170 |
1 772 |
-34% |
4 791 |
6 319 |
-24% |
|
Total Volvo Group |
9 196 |
24 616 |
-63% |
41 433 |
90 507 |
-54% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Light duty (< 7t) |
1 973 |
4 028 |
-51% |
7 083 |
16 089 |
-56% |
|
Medium duty (7-16t) |
1 510 |
2 929 |
-48% |
5 914 |
10 909 |
-46% |
|
Heavy duty (>16t) |
5 714 |
17 659 |
-68% |
28 436 |
63 510 |
-55% |
|
Total Volvo Group |
9 196 |
24 616 |
-63% |
41 433 |
90 507 |
-54% |
via Truck deliveries in April 2009 – Press releases : Volvo Group – Global.
Scania has agreed with the unions concerned on a four-day week for all employees in its Swedish operations starting in June.
“I welcome the decision of our employees to help out the company in these difficult times. Their willingness to make personal sacrifices shows great support for the company’s strategy to deal with the very sharp decline in market demand without further employee cutbacks. Scania will stand well equipped when the market rebounds,” says Leif Östling, President and CEO of the company.
The four-day week will be introduced in June and cover employees and managers at production, research and development units as well as administration and corporate staff units at Scania’s operations in Sweden – some 6,000 white collar employees and 6,000 workshop employees in all.
The agreement will apply for six months, with a break for holidays. Scania undertakes not to issue any lay-off notice during the period of the agreement.
The four-day week is a key element of Scania’s strategy to preserve the collective competency of the company despite a very sharp decline in market demand.
Scania has already introduced various forms of working hour reductions for more than 2,000 employees in the Netherlands, France, Germany and elsewhere.
For further information, please contact Erik Ljungberg, Senior Vice President, Corporate Relations, tel. +46 8 553 835 57.
via Scania introducing four-day week for 12,000 employees in Sweden.
STOCKHOLM (Dow Jones)–Scania AB (SCV-A.SK) expects to save about 300 million Swedish kronor ($38.4 million) by reducing the work week to four days for its Swedish employees, a spokesman for the truckmaker said Friday.
Scania had salary-related expenses in Sweden of about SEK7.5 billion in 2008 and expects close to 10% in salary savings by cutting the work week, Hans-Ake Danielsson said.
Scania announced Friday it has agreed with unions about the shorter work week for the company’s 12,000 employees in Sweden. The agreement takes effect in June and will last for six months.
Scania has agreed not to issue any layoff notices to the affected workers during this period.
Danielsson said Scania, which has experienced a sharp drop in demand for its heavy trucks and buses since last autumn, is “not seeing any signs of a turnaround. I think you can say that without exaggerating.”
Scania, based in Sodertalje south of Stockholm, last month reported a 93% plunge in first-quarter net profit to SEK179 million.
Scania Chief Executive Leif Ostling said in a statement the labor savings will help the company “deal with the very sharp decline in market demand without further employee cutbacks.”
“Scania will stand well equipped when the market rebounds,” Ostling added.
In contrast, Scania’s Swedish peer AB Volvo (VOLV-B.SK) has given notice to more than 20,000 employees, temporary workers and consultants around the world, including many in Sweden, since the global financial crisis erupted last autumn.
via Article – WSJ.com.
Cost cutting programme increasingly effective as of March
Nuremberg – The intensified worldwide financial and economic crisis exerted the expected heavily adverse effect on the performance of Leoni AG’s business in early 2009. Although the downtrend did level out somewhat in March following the extremely weak demand in the months of January and February, the consolidated sales for the first quarter of 2009 of this leading provider of cable systems to the automotive and other industries were nevertheless down by 36 percent year on year to EUR 492.4 million (previous year: EUR 770.6 million). The reduced capacity utilisation took earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) to a loss of EUR 45.6 million (previous year: profit of EUR 34.1 million), although the losses did come down significantly in March. Taking the budgeted finance costs and taxes into account, the Group reported a net loss of EUR 49.7 million versus net income of EUR 20.0 million in the first quarter of 2008.
To counteract this situation, Leoni launched a comprehensive cost reduction programme in January that has been an exerting increasingly beneficial effect in all areas since March. Along with worldwide cutback of capital spending and material costs, the measures comprise above all adjustment of staffing capacity to the lower demand. The Company thus introduced short-time working at almost all of its German facilities as well as having made working hours largely flexible and reducing them at its foreign plants. In addition, Leoni was compelled during the period under report to trim the number of its employees at various facilities worldwide by a total of nearly 6,000 to about 45,000 people at the end of March 2009. In Germany, only about 80 jobs have been cut. In addition, the Company is currently considering further restructuring measures. In the first three months of the year, EBIT was weighed down by restructuring expenditures of EUR 5.0 million (previous year: EUR 0.8 million).
Sharp sales decline in the automotive industry
In the wake of the steep sales decline in the international motor vehicle industry, the external sales of the Wiring Systems division from the beginning of January to the end of March 2009 dropped by 34 percent versus the same quarter of the previous year to EUR 270.1 million (previous year: EUR 411.1 million). The EBIT-level result came to a loss of EUR 30.3 million (previous year: profit of EUR 13.4 million). The decline in demand was evident in all segments of vehicles and on a worldwide level. At the end of March 2009 Leoni’s customers, who had repeatedly lowered the volume of product called forward since the crisis started, for the first time no longer scaled back their forecast for the year. Some buyers even raised their output forecast slightly. Regardless of the difficult market situation, all the new start-ups and model changeovers planned by the carmakers with effect on Leoni were carried out, which is why Leoni also commenced production of several new wiring systems during the period under report.
Robotics, solar technology and rolling stock as rays of light
The economic crisis also left its traces on many of the Wire & Cable Solutions division’s customer industries, as a result of which this segment’s external sales in the first three months of 2009 were down by 38 percent to EUR 222.3 million (previous year: EUR 359.5 million). Excluding the changes in the price of copper, the decline would have come to 22 percent. The result before interest and taxes came to a loss of EUR 13.8 million in the first quarter of 2009 after profit of EUR 21.9 million in the same period of the previous year. Alongside the motor vehicle industry, demand was especially weak in the telecommunications, automation and mechanical engineering sectors. On the other hand, Leoni recorded gains with cable products for the robotics, rolling stock, petrochemical and solar industries.
Prospects still fraught with uncertainty
Leoni still anticipates a significant decline in both sales and earnings over fiscal 2009 as a whole. As most customers are holding back with medium to long-term guidance on performance, Leoni is likewise unable to provide any specific forecast for the current financial year. The Group will continue to strive for balanced free cash flow over the year as a whole.
Leoni performance overview
|
Q1/2009 |
Q1/2008 |
Change |
|
|
Group external sales |
€ 492.4 million |
€ 770.6 million |
(36.1) % |
|
EBITDA |
€ (18.5) million |
€ 61.2 million |
(130.2) % |
|
EBIT |
€ (45.6) million |
€ 34.1 million |
(233.7) % |
|
Earnings before taxes (EBT) |
€ (56.9) million |
€ 24.7 million |
(330.4) % |
|
Net loss / net income |
€ (49.7) million |
€ 20.0 million |
(348.5) % |
|
Capital expanditure (incl. acquisitions) |
22.5 % |
€ 174.0 million |
(86.1) % |
|
Equity ratio |
26.6 % |
26.6 % |
|
|
Earnings per Share |
€ (1.86) |
€ 0.67 |
(377.6) % |
|
Employees as at 03/31 |
45,007 |
52,179 |
(13.7) % |
via LEONI: Leoni recorded the expected sales decline and negative result in the first quarter of 2009.
* Q1 pretax profit 164 million SEK vs 3.52 billion y/y
* Low market activity in nearly all markets
* No recovery seen in coming quarters
* Says negotiating 4-day working week with Swedish unions (Adds CEO comments, updates share price)
By Niklas Pollard and Victoria Klesty
STOCKHOLM, April 27 (Reuters) – Truck maker Scania (SCVb.ST) posted a bigger-than-expected fall in first-quarter pretax earnings on Monday, hit by plunging vehicles markets, and said it expected demand to remain weak in the coming quarters.
The Swedish company reported a pretax profit of 164 million Swedish crowns ($19.96 million) versus year-ago earnings of 3.52 billion and the mean forecast for a 437 million profit seen in a Reuters poll of 16 analysts.
The company said that in addition to recent job cuts it planned to reduce capacity further by shortening the working week at its plants in Sweden.
Demand for trucks has collapsed under the weight of the global financial crisis and ensuing economic downturn, leaving European makers of commercial vehicles scrambling to slash costs and capacity built up during years of booming sales.
Shares in Scania turned positive in the afternoon after an initial fall, trading 0.9 percent higher by 1235 GMT, outperforming the broader market .
“The results were a little bit worse than expected, but order intake was actually a shade stronger than I had expected,” said an analyst who asked not to be identified.
Scania’s arch-rival Volvo (VOLVb.ST) last week reported a 4.5 billion crown operating loss and cut its market forecasts. [ID:nLO690029]
Volvo also reported a negative cash flow of more than 15 billion crowns, while Scania’s stayed positive at 874 million crowns compared with 1.69 billion a year earlier.
“Falling vehicle deliveries and substantially lower capacity utilisation pulled down earnings,” Scania said.
“Practically all markets where Scania has operations are characterised by low economic activity due to the turbulence in the financial markets and its impact on the real economy.”
Scania Chief Executive Leif Ostling said he thought Volvo’s forecast that the European truck market will more than halve this year compared to 2008 was a reasonable estimate.
“It will probably be in that ball park”, Ostling told Reuters on the sidelines of a news conference. “Whatever the case, it will be dramatic.”
He added he saw demand in Eastern Europe, including Russia and Ukraine, falling by 70 to 75 percent this year.
ORDER DROUGHT
Scania, which only last year reported its best annual operating earnings ever, said order bookings of trucks and bus chassis fell 70 percent year-on-year in the quarter. In its key West European market alone, orders of trucks plunged 78 percent.
“At present, Scania foresees no change in the demand for vehicles in the coming quarters,” the company said.
Scania, majority-controlled by Germany’s Volkswagen (VOWG.DE) after a $4 billion deal last year, said sales fell to 15.9 billion crowns from a year-earlier 22.0 billion to come in above the 15.5 billion seen by analysts.
“If one wants to look for positives, the total order intake came in better than expected,” Handelsbanken analyst Hampus Engellau said.
Like its bigger peers, Scania has had to slam on the brakes at its truck plants but has so far only shed staff on temporary contracts.
“Most of the 2,000 production employees with fixed term temporary contracts have left the company, a reduction to 10,000 employees in the production units and working hours have been reduced to mainly daytime shifts,” Scania said.
“Scania has postponed various investments, mainly in production, and has carried out a reduction in the number of outside consultants.”
Scania said it had plans for further capacity reductions, and was negotiating a new cost-saving scheme with Swedish unions.
“What we now has put on the table is to go for a four-day working week,” Ostling told a news conference. “Provided we reach an agreement with the unions, we get an immediate effect.”
He added the four-day working week was likely to be in effect for 6-12 months and that the capacity reduction would be equal to that generated by more than 1,000 people leaving the company. (Additional reporting by Johannes Hellstrom, Oskar von bahr and Love Liman; Editing by Rupert Winchester)
via UPDATE 3-Scania Q1 demand collapses, pretax plunges 95 pct | Reuters.
* Volvo Q1 operating loss 4.53 billion Swedish crowns
* European truck sales down 32.9 pct in March
* UK car production falls 51.3 pct in March
* Volvo down 5.0 pct; Valeo down 1.8 pct
By Niklas Pollard and Helen Massy-Beresford
STOCKHOLM/PARIS, April 24 (Reuters) – Swedish truck maker Volvo (VOLVb.ST) and French car parts maker Valeo (VLOF.PA) posted first-quarter losses on Friday, as European industry data underlined the scale of the crisis engulfing the sector.
Volvo posted a larger-than-expected operating loss of 4.53 billion Swedish crowns ($549.1 million) for the period, also cutting its market outlook, while France’s Valeo pledged to step up cost-cutting after a Q1 operating loss of 66 million euros ($86.93 million). [ID:nLO690029]
“We knew that (Volvo’s) figures would be bad. The question was only if they would be really, really bad, and they were,” Cheuvreux analyst Patrick Sjoblom said.
“The financial services business is also heading downhill faster than I had expected,” Sjoblom added.
Volvo shares were down 5.0 percent in late morning trade, compared with a DJ Stoxx European Autos index .SXAP up 0.99 percent. Valeo shares were down 1.8 percent.
“Obviously those are levels of loss that are not sustainable. We cannot stay there,” said Chief Executive Leif Johansson, referring to the operating loss. “We have in the quarter had to make, and will continue to make, dramatic reductions in production capacity.”
The challenge facing Volvo — the world’s second largest truck maker — was underlined by industry data showing that new commercial vehicle sales in Europe plunged 32.9 percent in March and 35.6 percent in the first quarter as a whole. [ID:nLO329628]
COLLAPSE IN DEMAND
In a major setback after years of robust sales, the global financial crisis and ensuing collapse in demand for heavy-duty trucks has left Volvo and its peers in the European truck industry struggling to slash capacity and costs.
The doldrums encountered by the heavy-duty truck makers are only a shade less severe than those experienced by the auto industry, where the likes of Chrysler [CBS.UL] and General Motors (GM.N) are struggling to survive. [ID:nLN620342]
Volvo, which manufactures heavy-duty trucks under the Renault (RENA.PA), Mack, Nissan Diesel (NSNDF.PK) and Eicher (EICH.BO) brands, as well as its own name, said order bookings in the quarter slumped 65 percent in the quarter, with a drop of 71 percent in its key European market alone.
Volvo said it expected European heavy-duty truck demand to be slashed by at least half this year, having previously forecast a 30-40 percent decline.
Meanwhile in France, first-quarter losses and a bolstered cost-reduction plan at Valeo underlined the severe problems the slump in demand for cars is causing suppliers.
Valeo first-quarter sales fell 33.4 percent to 1.624 billion euros, but the group’s new CEO Jacques Aschenbroich said he expected the second quarter to perform in line with the month of March, when scrapping incentives — cash bonuses paid to drivers who trade in old models for new — introduced by several governments had some early positive effects on car sales. [ID:nLO176593]
In the UK, March car production fell 51.3 percent year-on-year, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said on Friday. [ID:nLO628237]
The UK on Tuesday announced plans to boost the flagging car industry with a scrapping incentive scheme while on Friday Chancellor Angela Merkel said there would be no extension to Germany’s car-scrapping scheme. [ID:nLM73572] [nBAT002865]
Friday’s figures show that urgent action is needed to kick-start demand, and the scheme is “an important first step”, SMMT Chief Executive Paul Everitt said.
European sector consolidation remained in focus, with an Opel board member saying Magna International (MGa.TO) would be welcome as an investor in the German unit of GM, which is being spun off with the UK’s Vauxhall Motors, and seeking outside investors. [ID:WEA8266]
Armin Schild, a senior labour leader and Opel supervisory board member speaking on German television poured scorn on the idea of a Fiat bid for Opel.
“We have had experience of working with Fiat — this experience has been extraordinarily bad,” he said referring to the acrimonious end of an alliance between Fiat and General Motors in 2005. [nLO260277]
A spokesman for Germany’s economy ministry said on Friday that the government had been holding talks with investors interested in Opel for some time. ($1=8.249 Swedish crowns) ($1=.7592 euros) (Additional reporting by Victoria Klesty, Matthias Blamont, Michael Shields, Peter Dinkloh, Avril Ormsby; editing by Mike Nesbit)
via WRAPUP 1-Volvo, Valeo post losses; industry data bleak | Deals | Private Capital | Reuters.
In March, new heavy truck registrations were down 43.7% to 16,792 units in Europe*. In Western Europe, registrations dropped by 38.5% reflecting a downturn across the board, varying from -16.4% in Germany to -30.3% in France, -46.4% in the UK, -47.6% in Italy, -58.7% in the Netherlands and -73.0% in Spain. In the new EU Member States, results dropped by 70.5%. Poland remained the largest market, although down 69.1%.
Three months into the year, the effect of the economic crisis added up to a minus of 41.5%, with a 75.5% decrease in Spain, 69.4% in Poland, 45.4% in the UK, 38.2% in Italy, 31.9% in the Netherlands, 29.5% in France, 29.3% in Germany and 21% in Belgium.
* Says cuts forced by sharp global decline in demand
* Says job cuts to affect operations in Sweden (Adds company, analyst comment, background)
STOCKHOLM, April 22 (Reuters) – World number two truck maker Volvo (VOLVb.ST) said on Wednesday it would cut a further 1,543 jobs at the group as it sought to adjust to plummeting demand across all its main markets.
Volvo said in a statement employees at its Volvo Trucks, Construction Equipment, Penta and Powertrain units would be affected by the lay-offs.
“As a result of the sharp decline on world markets for heavy vehicles, the Volvo Group is being forced to implement new personnel reductions within its Swedish operations,” the company said in a statement.
Volvo shares were up sharply already ahead of the news amid broad gains in the Stockholm equity market. At 0938 GMT Volvo shares rose 8.8 percent to 53.75 crowns.
The job cuts announced on Wednesday come on top of the thousands of staff the company is already in the process of laying off in order to come to grips with the sharpest decline in heavy-duty truck markets in living memory.
A Volvo spokesman said the job cuts would reduce costs, but declined to give any specific figure for the savings.
“It is no huge surprise that they make further cuts but it underlines how bad things really are,” said an analyst who asked not to be identified.
“The previous wave of cuts came in October and this clearly shows that things have not improved since then.”
Volvo, which manufactures heavy-duty trucks under the Renault, Mack, Nissan Diesel and Eicher brands, as well as its own name, said it was also discussing the possibility of introducing a shortened work weeks with unions.
Plunging demand and the resulting overcapacity led the Swedish company to report a pretax loss in the final quarter of last year and many analysts see the company staying in the red throughout this year.
“The truth is that if the company is to survive, it must push down costs. But if they do this early enough, and powerfully, they can definitely survive on their current balance sheet,” a second analyst said.
Volvo reports its first-quarter results on Friday.
MAN AG has initiated talks with labor representatives over extending shorter working hours into the second half of this year, Euro am Sonntag reported, citing an unidentified company spokesman.
Hours would be reduced in the company’s commercial-vehicles unit due to weak demand, the business magazine said in an advance report released by e-mail today.
*MAN CEO SAYS PURCHASE PRICE FOR VW TRUCK PLANT IN BRAZIL IS ABOUT EQUAL TO HALF OF ANNUAL SALES THERE