Göteborg, Sweden-based Volvo last week said it has claimed the world No. 1 position in wheel loader sales. With the 70-percent purchase of Chinese wheel loader and excavator manufacturer Lingong, at the end of last year, Volvo is now the world's largest supplier of wheel loaders, Volvo CE chief Tony Helsham said at a Bauma press conference in Munich, Germany, last week.
According to Helsham, outside of China, Volvo was the world’s second-largest supplier of wheel loaders — but its Lingong investment has catapulted it into first place.
“With the addition of Lingong, we will be selling around 25,000 wheel loaders a year, which makes us No. 1 in wheel loaders globally,” said Helsham.
“We are forecasting during 2007 to shift 42,000 to 44,000 Volvo machines,” Helsham said. “When combined with more than 16,000 Lingong machines sold in China and 15,000 to 16,000 IR machines, that gives us a total annual sales figure of around 75,000 machines. In addition, that's a very nice engine demand.”
Helsham said Volvo would also use its Lingong facility strategically, using it as a development center for other low-cost Volvo products and working on building a market for large volumes of Volvo engines into Lingong products.
