STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Volvo AB's trucks unit will sell in North America a new model designed for construction use as part of an effort by the world's fourth-largest truckmaker to increase business in the region.

The VHD truck was developed over two years at a cost of about $96.9 million, the company said. The truck is the second Volvo has introduced this year, after the FL medium-duty distribution truck in March. The new truck has a 12-liter, 465-horsepower diesel engine and includes an air bag.

Volvo is trying to boost its U.S. market share at a time when North American orders for commercial trucks are slowing. The company's North American sales have fallen 30 percent this year.

The move also comes as Volvo seeks European Commission approval to buy Renault SA's truck division for as much as $2.2 billion.

The purchase would make Volvo the world's second-largest truckmaker and more than double its U.S. market share to 24 percent.

CMI, headquartered in Oklahoma City, acquired Cifali & CIA, a Brazilian manufacturer of hot mix asphalt production and paving equipment.

CMI chairman Bill Swisher said the purchase creates "an ideal product and market fit" for pavement-processing equipment and road-building machinery.

Waldon and its Lay-Mor product lines were purchased for an undisclosed price by Collins Industries, a Hutchinson, Kan.-based manufacturer of ambulances, small school buses and terminal trucks. The Fairview, Okla.-based firm reported sales of $16.5 million in 1999.

Moline, Ill.-based Deere & Co. and state-owned Tianjin Tractor Manufac-turing in China created a $21 million joint venture to produce and sell 55-, 60-, 75- and 80-horsepower tractors. Annual production is expected to total 9,000 machines.

The joint venture, 51 percent-owned by Deere, will be headquartered in Tianjin, about 100 miles southeast of Beijing.

Woods Equipment, based in Rockford, Ill., is undertaking a $2 million renovation of its factory in Brownsburg, Ind. The plant, which builds the company's Alitec brand of concrete and paving attachments, is scheduled for completion in November.

Daewoo, with U.S. headquarters in Suwanee, Ga., named Albany Ladder, a division of National Equipment Services based in Albany, N.Y., as its newest dealer for the company's compact equipment line of skid-steer loaders and mini excavators.

NES, No. 5 on the RER 100, acquired seven-location Albany Ladder in 1998.