The Volvo Group is looking at increasing its presence in Saudi Arabia and Qatar as well as the UAE in 2012, a senior executive said.
Anders Osberg, chief financial officer of the Volvo Group was speaking in advance of Volvo's 2011 fourth quarter results. He discussed the opportunities for the group in new markets.
"It is an attractive place to be, we are looking at relationships with banks and so on to try and sell our products even further," Osberg was quoted by Gulf News as saying."There are potential markets for us today where we haven't been that active before but are trying to break into now."
"Saudi Arabia, for instance, is a potential good market from the trucks and construction equipment perspective," Osberg added.
Osberg said that Volvo Group, which had sales of US$45 billion in the third quarter of 2011, was comfortable with its presence in emerging markets, including the Middle East, and was waiting to see what picture would develop in Europe and the US.?
"We see a much more balanced picture and this is how we would like to be in the future," he said. "In an economic downturn it is good not to have to rely on a single market... The first six months of 2012 will be very much guiding where we are heading in these different key markets. I think we're coming into a situation where it is very hard to make any kind of economic forecast."
