Scania in a Major New Deal with Russia -- 'One of Scania's biggest markets in five year's time'


SODERTALJE, Sweden, June 27, 2002 (PRIMEZONE) -- Scania has sold 100 trucks to Russia's third-largest gas and oil company, Surgutneftegas. This puts Scania's vehicle sales in Russia for the first six months of this year on a par with the figure for the whole of last year.

All the trucks in the latest order feature all-wheel drive. The contract is for 50 three-axle tractors and 50 three-axle tippers. The deal with Surgutneftegas also encompasses spare parts, and the contract is valued at about 9 million EUR.

"Our Russian operations have seen exceptional expansion since the market bottomed out during the country's economic crisis of 1998," said PG Nilsson, the Managing Director of Scania's Russian subsidiary, Scania Russia. "Within the next five years, Russia will develop into one of Scania's ten-largest markets.

"From the all-time low in the crisis years of 1998-1999, with just 50 trucks sold, Scania invoiced 370 vehicles last year, putting the company into the leading position with a 29 percent share of the market for heavy trucks imported from the West. Sales so far this year have far exceeded our forecasts, and our market share is now above 30 percent," continued PG Nilsson.

Surgutneftegas, which operates in Siberia, will put the new Scania trucks to work in the huge road-building projects that are constantly being undertaken in the region's vast oilfields and gasfields. The company's fleet currently consists of about 2,000 vehicles that are being gradually replaced with modern European trucks.

Scania is one of the world's leading manufacturers of trucks and buses for heavy transport applications, and of industrial and marine engines. With 28,300 employees and production facilities in Europe and Latin America, Scania is one of the most profitable companies in its sector. In 2001, turnover totalled SEK 53,000 million and the result after financial items was SEK 1,500 million. Scania products are marketed in about 100 countries worldwide and some 95 percent of Scania's vehicles are sold outside Sweden.

Scania press releases are available on the Internet, www.scania.com

This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net

The following files are available for download:


www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2002/06/27/20020627BIT00850/wkr0001.doc
www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2002/06/27/20020627BIT00850/wkr0002.pdf