Scania Interim Report January-September 2022
Comments by Christian Levin, President and CEO
“The third quarter has been characterised by a continued unstable macroeconomic and geopolitical situation. High inflation, interest rate hikes and energy crisis in Europe now point to a weaker economic development.
Demand for Scania’s trucks remains strong globally but in some European markets we can see slightly lower transport activity among our customers. This is however not reflected in the order intake. The order book for trucks is still large and we are continuing to be restrictive in the placing of orders to ensure the quality of the order book and the ability to adjust prices to the high cost inflation.
In Scania’s bus and coach operations the recovery is continuing in line with the improving pandemic situation in large parts of the world. Within Power Solutions, demand is also strong, due to high activity among OEM manufacturers. Scania’s important service business is continuing to grow and underlying demand also remains robust in the Financial Services segment.
The supply chain, which was disrupted by component shortages for much of the year, is now more stable and during the quarter we managed to increase the volume of deliveries to our customers. The bottle neck of the supply chain has shifted from components, to a lack of transport capacity due to Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Increased sales in the third quarter had a positive impact on earnings, partly offset by increased cost of input goods and less than full capacity utilisation in production. Earnings were also impacted negatively by write-downs related to the disposal of Scania’s business activities in Russia.
The outlook for the business climate is difficult to predict with all this uncertainty in the global economy. We remain focused on Scania’s purpose and continue to make key strategic investments, which in the slightly longer term are absolutely crucial for driving the shift towards a sustainable transport system. It is equally important that decision-makers worldwide do not deprioritise sustainability but instead see the opportunities in the shift, reduce uncertainty and promote infrastructural investments relating to electrification and biofuels.
Scania is continuing its electrification journey and at the IAA trade fair we showcased an extensive offering of electric vehicles, including our latest addition – an electric truck for regional transport. We also pushed for biogas, a solution that will need to be used increasingly if we are to reach the climate targets, especially in light of the energy crisis. Scania displayed its expanded biogas offering for heavy trucks by introducing two new biogas engines, which goes hand in hand with the major initiative in tank solutions for gas-powered vehicles we unveiled earlier this year. The new 13-litre engines offer 420 or 460 horsepower, thus covering a very large share of that part of the European truck market which needs more powerful solutions, including long-haulage trucks.”
