Volvo eyes 2nd Russian factory

Swedish heavy lorry maker Volvo is to build a €100 million (€1 = RM4.64) truck factory in western Russia with an annual capacity of 15,000 units, the company announced on Saturday.
Volvo, the second-largest big truck manufacturer after Daimler- Chrysler, signed the deal with officials from the Kaluga region on the margins of the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum, Interfax news agency reported. The factory will assemble 10,000 Volvo trucks and 5,000 Renault trucks on a site southwest of Moscow when it is completed in 2009, Volvo said.

Volvo already runs a truck factory in Zelenograd in the Moscow region, producing 500 trucks per year. Last year the company sold 2,000 trucks in Russia, an 83 per cent rise on the previous year, Interfax reported.