Volvo India exports trucks to Korea

"We have exported 150 trucks that have been fine tuned to the requirements of the Korean market," Volvo India managing director Ulf Nordqvist said.

This is the unit's first major export outside the south Asian region, he added. The Volvo plant at Hoskote, about 45 km from Bangalore, has a capacity to produce 1200 vehicles, he said, adding the vehicles have 40 per cent local components while the rest is sourced from Volvo's European plants.

"We are delivering the trucks from India to our customers who will get the same global product at a competitive price," Nordqvist said, adding, the Indian operations competed with Volvo's other plants like in Brazil to ship trucks to Korea.

"We have grown nearly 80 per cent over 2003 when we registered a revenue of Rs 356 crore (Rs 3.56 billion)," he said.

"Volvo exported components valued at Euro 26 million in 2004, a 100 per cent jump over exports of Euro 13 million in 2003. It has targeted component exports to Europe of Euro 40 million," Nordqvist said.