Scania Year-end Report January–December 2018

[kscarbel2]

Scania Group Press Release  /  March 14, 2019

2018 was a year of continued growth and of records in many areas, while we carried out the biggest industrial transition in the company’s history.

Summary of the full year 2018

• Operating income amounted to SEK 13,832 m. (12,434)
• Net sales increased by 11 percent to SEK 137,126 m. (123,366)
• Cash flow amounted to SEK 3,665 m. (5,696) in Vehicles and Services
• As from the 2018 financial year, the presentation of the income statement has been adjusted to align with Volkswagen Group’s (including comparative periods)

Comments by Henrik Henriksson, President and CEO

“2018 was a year of continued growth and of records in many areas, while we carried out the biggest industrial transition in the company’s history. Deliveries of trucks, buses and coaches, as well as engines reached all-time high levels, and so did service volume. Scania’s net sales amounted to SEK 137.1 billion, an increase of 11 percent compared to the previous year. Earnings rose to SEK 13,832 m., which gave an operating margin of 10.1 percent. Higher vehicle and service volume contributed positively and so did currency effects while higher production costs for running double product ranges and disruptions in the supply chain impacted earnings negatively. With the changeover of production in Latin America during the first quarter of 2019, we will have completed the global transition to Scania’s new truck generation. This final stage of the changeover will lead to some limitations in the flexibility and capacity of our global production system. There is still a higher than normal cost situation in general for products and production related to the new truck generation. Measures to normalise cost levels have been introduced.

With continued high capacity utilisation of our customers’ installed truck fleets and Scania’s continually improving service offering, which is built on data from more than 360,000 connected vehicles, our service business is continuing to grow. Service revenue increased by 12 percent in 2018 to a record high SEK 26.6 billion. Financial Services reported operating income at the all-time high level of SEK 1,440 million.

Order bookings for trucks fell by 12 percent in 2018 compared to the high level during the year-earlier period. Demand in Europe remains at a good level, with a high level of customer activity. In Latin America, Brazil’s recovery is progressing. In Asia, order bookings fell in 2018 compared to last year, due to Middle East. Demand in Eurasia remains strong, even though order bookings decreased somewhat in Russia towards year-end. Buses and coaches is also negatively affected by a lower order intake in Middle East but overall order bookings is in line with last year. In the Engines business area, demand is strong in all segments. In 2018 order bookings were positively affected by a pre-buy effect in Europe.”

.