The third quarter should be as good as the second, added the company, which is 46 percent owned by Volkswagen, Europe’s largest automaker.

For the three months to June, Scania posted a net profit of 2.37 billion kronor ($325 million), more than reversing a loss of 150 million kronor 12 months earlier, as sales jumped 43 percent to 20.6 billion kronor. Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires expected a net profit of 1.96 billion kronor on sales of 19.23 billion kronor.

The heavy truck sector suffered very badly in the global economic slump,

with orders plummeting. Germany’s Daimler and Sweden’s Volvo, which dominate the market along with Germany’s MAN (Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg), which attempted a hostile takeover of Scania four years ago, recently reported better-than-expected earnings as they also benefited from the recovery.