SHARE
COPY LINK

BUSINESS

Sweden’s Volvo to build first car factory in US

Swedish carmaker Volvo Cars has announced plans to build its first factory in the United States, 60 years after it started selling cars in the country.

Sweden's Volvo to build first car factory in US
Volvo's factory in west Sweden. Photo: TT

The new factory will be Chinese-owned Volvo's fifth, and comes in the wake of a two-year turnaround of the Swedish brand's fortunes since it was sold by Ford in 2010.

"Volvo Cars cannot claim to be a true global car maker without an industrial presence in the US. Today, we became that," chief executive Håkan Samuelsson said in a statement.

The manufacturer said it has not decided on the location of the new plant, but said it would invest about $500 million (461 million euros) on the project, "underscoring its long term commitment to the US market."

The new factory will join existing plants in Sweden, Belgium, China and Malaysia.

Despite its presence in the US since 1955, Volvo is a small player in the country. Last year its US sales fell by 8 percent to 58,000 units — representing a mere 0.4 percent of the market.

Following its sale to China's Geely five years ago, Volvo struggled to return to profits.

It recovered last year, however, selling 465,866 cars worldwide — breaking a previous sales record from 2007 — on the back of soaring sales in China, and strong activity in Europe.

The company appointed a new chief executive for North America in January, tasked with boosting sales to "over 100,000 cars in the medium term."

It also announced it would begin shipping a new S60 model produced in China to the US market in mid-2015.

The S60 will be built at a brand new factory in Chengdu that was developed to help launch the Volvo brand in the Chinese market.

In November 2014, Volvo announced it would be expanding its Swedish employee count by 40 percent, due to 'increasing customer demand' for the cars.
 
The car manufacturer said it plannned to hire 1,300 people at the Torslanda plant near Gothenburg in western Sweden. 

BUSINESS

France’s EDF hails €10billion profit, despite huge UK nuclear charge

French energy giant EDF has unveiled net profit of €10billion and cut its massive debt by increasing nuclear production after problems forced some plants offline.

France's EDF hails €10billion profit, despite huge UK nuclear charge

EDF hailed an “exceptional” year after its loss of €17.9billion in 2022.

Sales slipped 2.6 percent to €139.7billion , but the group managed to slice debt by €10billion euros to €54.4billion.

EDF said however that it had booked a €12.9 billion depreciation linked to difficulties at its Hinkley Point nuclear plant in Britain.

The charge includes €11.2 billion for Hinkley Point assets and €1.7billion at its British subsidiary, EDF Energy, the group explained.

EDF announced last month a fresh delay and additional costs for the giant project hit by repeated cost overruns.

“The year was marked by many events, in particular by the recovery of production and the company’s mobilisation around production recovery,” CEO Luc Remont told reporters.

EDF put its strong showing down to a strong operational performance, notably a significant increase in nuclear generation in France at a time of historically high prices.

That followed a drop in nuclear output in France in 2022. The group had to deal with stress corrosion problems at some reactors while also facing government orders to limit price rises.

The French reactors last year produced around 320.4 TWh, in the upper range of expectations.

Nuclear production had slid back in 2022 to 279 TWh, its lowest level in three decades, because of the corrosion problems and maintenance changes after
the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hinkley Point C is one of a small number of European Pressurised Reactors (EPRs) worldwide, an EDF-led design that has been plagued by cost overruns
running into billions of euros and years of construction delays.

SHOW COMMENTS