Volvo 2010 Annual Report Download - page 28

BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ REPORT 2010
SIGNIFICANT EVENTS
Recovery, growth and product
launches 2010 was characterized by a recovery in the Group’s mature markets and
a continued strong development in most of the growth markets. The Volvo
Group’s intensive product renewal continued in all business areas.
The first quarter
Annual General Meeting
The Annual General Meeting of AB Volvo held on
April 14, 2010 approved the proposal from the
Board of Directors and the President not to pay a
dividend to the shareholders and that all of the
funds at the disposal of the Annual General
Meeting would be carried forward to the follow-
ing year.
Peter Bijur, Jean-Baptiste Duzan, Leif Johans-
son, Anders Nyrén, Louis Schweitzer, Ravi
Venkatesan, Lars Westerberg and Ying Yeh were
reelected as members of the Board of AB Volvo,
and Hanne de Mora was newly elected. Louis
Schweitzer was elected Chairman of the Board.
Thierry Moulonguet, representing Renault
S.A.S., Carl-Olof By, representing AB Industri-
värden, Håkan Sandberg, representing Svenska
Handelsbanken, SHB Pension Fund, SHB
Employee Fund, SHB Pensionskassa and
Oktogonen, Lars Förberg, representing Violet
Partners LP and the Chairman of the Board, were
elected members of the Election Committee.
The registered public accounting firm Price-
waterhouseCoopers AB was elected as the com-
pany’s auditor for a period of four years.
New trucks launched
On April 20, 2010, UD Trucks presented a new
range of Quon heavy-duty trucks. The latest
Quon lineup has been developed to meet high
levels of demand for both fuel economy and driv-
ing performance. It features newly developed
engines and automated manual transmissions
based on Group architecture. UD Trucks has also
added a new model equipped with a new medium-
duty engine to its Condor truck lineup.
On April 19, Volvo Trucks launched its new
Volvo FMX construction truck at the Bauma inter-
national machinery trade fair in Munich, Germany.
With the new truck, Volvo Trucks aims to increase
its presence in the construction segment. Sales
of the new Volvo FMX will begin in Europe in
September, 2010.
Detailed information about the events is avail-
able at www.volvogroup.com
The second quarter
Investment in Indian facility for production
of excavators
As part of Volvo Construction Equipment’s (Volvo
CE) objective of supporting customers in the
growing BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China)
markets, Volvo CE has announced a strategic
investment in its existing facility in Bangalore,
India. The investment, which totals around SEK
144 M, will allow Volvo CE to produce medium-
sized excavators at the plant. These machines will
primarily be models for use in the Indian market.
Production of the first machines is expected to
start by the end of 2011.
Production of new medium-duty engine
in India
The Volvo Group’s Indian joint venture company,
VE Commercial Vehicles (VECV) is to invest a
total of SEK 480 M in the production of the
Group’s new global medium-duty engine in India.
The investment gives the Volvo Group a complete
facility in India for machining and assembling the
new medium-duty engine, which will be intro-
duced in the Group’s trucks and buses worldwide
in the next few years. Through this investment, it
will be possible for the Volvo Group to locate
most of its production of medium-duty engines to
VECV’s plant in Pithampur, India.
Sale of Volvo Aero’s US service business
In July it was announced that Volvo Aero had
signed an agreement to sell its US subsidiary
Volvo Aero Services. The sale had a negative
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