Bangalore: Volvo India, which is rolling out its 1,000^th truck from its Hoskote plant near Bangalore, has announced its plans to increase its component exports and localisation levels. "Not obligated to export under the MoU with the Centre, Volvo India has shipped components worth Rs 15 crore. And this is set to increase," says Volvo India managing director Ulf Nordqvist.

Says Volvo India production head John Candoss: "Currently we are exporting forgings and castings. Now we have decided to add value by exporting machined and painted forgings and castings." The company has tied up with the Kirloskar group for the purpose.

According to Candoss discussions are on at the parent company's headquarters for sourcing components from other countries. Brazil and China are the other countries from where the Swedish parent AB Volvo is looking out for components.

Volvo India rolls out its heavy-duty trucks and luxury buses in India. While the import contents in its luxury buses are on the high side, 45 per cent of the components are being sourced locally for trucks. "Recently we have decided to source rear-axles from the Indian company Automotive Axles, resulting in lots of cost savings," says Candoss. Nordqvist says Volvo IT, the group's IT arm, will be outsourcing its IT need from Mindtree, another Bangalore-based company.

Handing over the keys of the 1,000^th truck rolled out by Volvo India, Nordqvist says: "If not for the 1,000^th Volvo trucks, it would probably have required 5,000 typical 2-axle rigid trucks to do the same job. This not only means reduction in the road space by 4,000 trucks, but also reduces emission levels for the same job by close to 80 per cent fuel consumption by 50 per cent while increasing the overall quality of the transport delivery."

The basic premise on which Volvo trucks are built is 'to do more with less,' he says. Though the commercial truck industry is affected by the slowdown in the economy, Nordqvist says Volvo India it not affected by the same. "We are clocking a healthy double-digit growth rate. We also have a healthy 65 per cent repeat purchase rate."
 
"Not only truck operators, even cement manufacturers are now in favour of Volvo trucks to pick up their cement bags from the plant, instead of the normal conventional trucks," says Volvo India head (sales) Mansoor Ahmed.