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08 July 1999 12:00 CET

Scania grows in Saudi Arabia:New customer purchases 70 trucks

On Wednesday, Scania signed a contract for the rapid delivery of 70 tractor units to the car haulage firm of Al-Bassami in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Added to an earlier order for 32 trucks, this means that GCC, Scania's Saudi Arabian importer, has sold more trucks after the first six months of this year than during the entire 1998.

"Scania has experienced a strong turnaround in 1999," comments Göran Östensson, who is responsible for the company's markets in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. "The Saudi truck market has been under severe pressure for several years and the competition has been murderous. We achieved sales of 79 vehicles in 1998 and we have now more than doubled that."

At present, 24 different makers of heavy trucks are competing in Saudi Arabia for a total market of no more than 2,000 vehicles per year. By mid-year, Scania's importer, General Contracting Company-Olayan (GCC), had achieved a market share of 7.5%.

Al-Bassami operates all over Saudi Arabia, transporting private cars for domestic air passengers between the country's airports. The company formerly had eight older Scania 3-series trucks in its fleet and has now opted for the modern 4-series.

For further information, please contact Bo Östlund, Corporate Communications, tel. +46-8-553 828 46 or +46-70-543 81 42 (mobile).

Scania is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of trucks and buses for heavy transport applications, and of industrial and marine engines. A growing proportion of the company’s operations consists of products and services in the financial and service sectors, assuring Scania customers of cost-effective transport solutions and maximum uptime. Employing 35,000 people, Scania operates in about 100 countries. Research and development activities are concentrated in Sweden, while production takes place in Europe and South America, with facilities for global interchange of both components and complete vehicles. In 2007, invoiced sales totalled SEK 84.5 billion and net income amounted to SEK 8.6 billion. Scania press releases are available at www.scania.com