Scania, the world’s third-largest manufacturer of heavy trucks and buses, has set up a new delivery center in Taoyuan County, the third of its kind around the globe, a company official said on Wednesday.
“The establishment of a delivery center here in Taiwan is one element in Scania’s strategy to strengthen our position in a fast-growing market that is very important to us,” Scania Griffin Automotive (永德福汽車) chairman Ake Norrman said at an inauguration ceremony.
“This facility will have a capacity of 500 vehicles per year, enabling us to shorten delivery time to our customers, which is a very important competitive factor,” he said.
With Taiwan’s well-established transportation infrastructure and its potential to develop into a logistics center, Scania said it expected to invest more than NT$100 million (US$2.9 million) and employ between 20 and 30 workers at the delivery center.
The Swedish truck maker has opened similar facilities in South Africa and Malaysia.
Swedish Trade Council Representative Henrik Bystrom said Scania made a good choice when it picked Taoyuan County as it is close to the capital and the major airport and seaports, making it very similar to Scania’s headquarters in Sodertalje, Sweden.
Scania Griffin Automotive president Jerry Liu (劉振偉) said the company would emulate Dell’s business model of integrating logistics and production.
Liu said the new delivery center would first focus on meeting local demand, adding that there was a potential for the company to supply its vehicles to China in the future, but not at the moment because of China’s lower environmental standards.
Scania’s vehicles are 5 percent to 10 percent more expensive than its European competitors and cost between 10 percent and 20 percent more than its Japanese competitors because of their high fuel efficiency and durability, Liu said.
Last year, parent group Scania AB reported revenues of 8.1 billion euros (US$10.3 billion) and earnings before tax of 1.1 billion euros.
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