Scania Strengthens Its Hold on the Russian Bus Market

STOCKHOLM, Sweden--Scania’s (STO:SCVA)(STO:SCVB) success in the Russian bus and coach market is continuing. During 2006, orderintake rose by 60 percent compared to last year and will reach about 400 units, which is the highest figure ever. Today Scania is the dominant manufacturer among western European bus makes in Russia.

“We have been successful because we have products that are well-adapted to Russian customers’ demands for reliable, fuel-efficient buses,” says Hans Hansson, Senior Vice President Buses and Coaches. “They also appreciate our strong service network and regional parts distribution centre, which contributes to the high uptime of customers’ vehicles.”

Most sales during the year were made together with domestic bus bodybuilding companies with which Scania has established collaboration.

But more than 40 percent of sales consisted of urban and intercity buses from Scania’s own Omni range, which are made at the Scania Omni assembly plant in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Since the plant opened in 2002, Scania has produced about 800 buses there, of which more than 700 were destined for the Russian market. The others have been exported, mainly to Sweden.

All buses now being delivered from St Petersburg are equipped with Scania’s 9-litre Euro 4 engines with exhaust-gas recirculation (EGR) technology, which efficiently safeguards environmental performance and operating economy.

“Many of our customers are private bus companies in regions around St Petersburg and Moscow, but also in other cities, which are investing in replacing their fleets of older buses with more cost-effective, environmentally optimised vehicles,” says Alexander Sergeev, Sales Director at Scania Russia.

Scania is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of trucks and buses for heavy transport applications, and of industrial and marine engines. A growing proportion of the company’s operations consists of products and services in the financial and service sectors, assuring Scania customers of cost-effective transport solutions and maximum uptime. Employing 32,000 people, Scania operates in about 100 countries. Research and development activities are concentrated in Sweden, while production plants are located in Europe and South America, with facilities for the global exchange of both components and finished vehicles. In 2005, revenue totalled SEK 63.3 billion and net income amounted to SEK 4.7 billion.

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