Strongest year ever for Volvo CE

Buoyed by strong demand, Volvo Construction Equipment report 27% increase in sales in 2018

SUPPORTED by a fourth quarter that saw sales up 21% and deliveries increase by 24%, Volvo Construction Equipment say they ended their strongest year ever buoyed by good demand from all major regions and all industrial segments.

Ending 2018 strongly, Volvo CE not only posted their best set of annual financial results ever, but also helped parent company the Volvo Group achieve record results too.

Growth in both machine and service businesses, and increased demand from construction, infrastructure and mining in all major markets, helped Volvo CE deliver strong improvements in sales, operating income, and order intake.

For the full year to 31 December 2018, net sales increased by 27%, to SEK84,238 million (2017: SEK66,313 million), while adjusted operating income increased to SEK11,306 million (SEK7,917 million), corresponding to an operating margin of 13.4% (11.9%).

‘2018 was a record year for Volvo CE, driven by good demand from all major regions in the construction, infrastructure and mining sectors,’ said Melker Jernberg , president of Volvo CE.

‘In the future, we see further potential to increase volume flexibility in the supply chain, to improve quality and to grow our service business. An even stronger service business means that we can provide better support for our customers and also better balance the cyclicality in construction equipment sales.’

During 2018 Volvo CE continued their drive to develop next-generation solutions, progressing their position in electrification, automation and connectivity. In a 10-week trial, the company together with customer Skanska tested the Electric Site concept.

Based on autonomous, electric and connected Volvo machines running in a quarry, results showed that Electric Site can deliver significant reductions in carbon emissions as well as operator costs.