Business

Wed Aug 27 20:03:57 PDT 2008

VOLVO AB, the world’s second-biggest truck maker, said yesterday that deliveries by its four brands rose 2 percent in July, with growth held back by declines in western Europe and the United States.

Sales at the Mack, Nissan Diesel, Renault and Volvo divisions rose to 19,243 vehicles last month from 18,824 a year earlier, the Sweden-based company said. Seven-month sales rose 27 percent to 154,888 trucks.

The economy of the 15 nations sharing the euro contracted 0.2 percent in the second quarter from the first, led by drops in Germany, France and Italy. "The sales data look relatively weak," said Carl Holmquist, an analyst at Danske Markets Equities in Stockholm.

At the same time, "Volvo is very broadly based. That’s still helping the company in a deteriorating market," he said.

Volvo fell as much as 3 percent to 73.75 kronor (US$11.60) yesterday, the lowest price in more than three weeks, Bloomberg News said.

Source: Shanghai Daily