Volvo to Exceed Projected Profit Budgeted

STOCKHOLM, Dec 21, 2003; Reuters reported that Swedish car maker Volvo PV, a unit of U.S. Ford Motor Co. ), is heading for a full-year 2003 profit above budget of around five billion crowns ($650 million), a Swedish newspaper reported on Sunday.

"We will deliver earnings in line with budget and a bit more," the business daily Dagens Industri quoted Volvo PV's President Hans-Olov Olsson as saying in the Internet edition of the newspaper due to come out in print on Monday.

Olsson declined to give any earnings figures but said Volvo PV's productivity had improved by five percent this year. Dagens Industri said it had obtained information suggesting that the 2003 profit would be close to five billion crowns.

That would make Volvo the best performer in Ford's Premier Automotive Group (PAG) luxury car division, which includes brands such as Jaguar, Aston Martin and Land Rover.

In 2002, the PAG made a $897 million loss but Ford has vowed to return the unit to profit this year.

Volvo PV would sell about 420,000 cars this year, Dagens Industri said. Olsson said 2003 sales of Volvo cars in the United States would hit a record for the brand of close to 140,000 vehicles.

Sales of Volvo cars have risen every month this year and December would be no exception, the newspaper said.

Production of Volvo's XC90 model would increase by 10,000 vehicles next year to 90,000, Dagens Industri said.