Scania is ranked among the world’s 100 most sustainable corporations, according to Corporate Knights Global 100 list. The list, which was announced at the Davos World Economic Forum, includes companies from 22 countries encompassing all sectors of the economy.

The Global 100 key performance indicators include energy, carbon, water and waste productivity. Other indicators are leadership diversity, CEO-to-average worker pay, percentage tax paid, safety, innovation, employee turnover and if a senior officer has his/her pay linked to sustainability.

Scania was ranked in place 36, next highest in the auto industry after Toyota. Scania is also the only manufacturer of heavy vehicles among the 100 companies represented.

“This is a clear recognition of the fact that Scania takes sustainability seriously and that our efforts are paying off,” says Erik Ljungberg, Senior Vice President, Corporate Relations. “We are particularly pleased that we rank even higher in the crucial sales to CO2 indicator.”

Scania’s earnings for the full year amounted to SEK 12,398 m. Higher vehicle and service volume was offset by a significantly stronger Swedish krona, a higher cost level and a changed market mix.

Summary of the full year 2011

• Operating income fell to SEK 12,398 m. (12,746), and earnings per share rose to SEK 11.78 (11.38)
• Net sales increased by 12 percent to SEK 87,686 m. (78,168)
• The Board of Directors proposes a dividend of SEK 5.00 (5.00) per share

More information at www.scania.com

Henrik Fagrenius, Managing Director of Scania Commercial Vehicles India.

The facility is being constructed in an industrial area 40 km east of Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka state in southern India. Production is expected to start in early 2013. It is estimated that almost 800 people will be employed at the facility in the longer term.

The industrial operations will consist of final assembly of truck and bus chassis and bodywork and fitting out of complete vehicles. The head office of Scania’s Indian company, complete with a service workshop and a central parts warehouse, is also being built at the same site.

“The manufacturing of complete trucks locally in the country means that we can cut lead times further and broaden our product offering. Our service to customers will also be improved by having a parts depot in the country,” says Henrik Fagrenius, Managing Director of Scania Commercial Vehicles India.

The facility in Bangalore is Scania’s seventh Regional Product Centre. The others are in Russia, Dubai, South Africa, Malaysia, Thailand and Taiwan.

Scania has been represented in the Indian market since 2007, when a partnership was initiated with Larsen & Toubro (L&T). L&T has successfully established Scania’s trucks and services and has developed a close partnership with customers in the mining industry. L&T currently operates about 10 Scania service workshops at various mining sites in the country. 

In 2011, Scania established the company Scania Commercial Vehicles India in order to boost its presence through sales to additional segments of the Indian commercial vehicle market.

“There is increasing demand for vehicles and engines of the quality and performance delivered by Scania, together with services that guarantee customers high uptime and low operating cost. We will concentrate on broadening our existing offering of trucks to the mining industry but also in other areas of the construction segment, as well as trucks for heavy special-purpose road transport. In the bus segment we see potential for sales of buses and coaches, both for city traffic and long-distance intercity services,” says Fagrenius.

For further information, please contact Hans-Åke Danielsson, Press Manager, tel. +46 8 553 856 62.

The companies on the list are, according to Thomson Reuters, “companies that invent on a significant scale; are working on developments which are acknowledged as innovative by patent offices across the world and by their peers; and whose inventions are so important that they seek global protection for them.”

“This award acknowledges innovation in its purest form,” Thomson Reuters writes about the list. “Being recognised as a Top 100 Global Innovator is a prestigious distinction. It confirms an organisation’s commitment to progressing innovation globally, to the protection of ideas and to the commercialisation of inventions.”

Scania has a patent portfolio of 3,000 patents. Last year, Scania applied for patent for 223 inventions, a record high number for the company.

“The major part of the inventions comes from our research team, but some of them are ideas from our production units,” says Stina Sjögren Paulsson, patent manager at Scania. “Most of the patents are later used in production by Scania,” she adds.

“We salute these companies and their leaders for the innovative spirit they foster and their commitment to protecting intellectual assets,” said David Brown, president of the IP Solutions division of Thomson Reuters.

“I feel overjoyed to be Women of the Year in Technology,” she says. “If I can inspire one other young woman to choose a career in technology that would be really good.”

In its motivation, the selection jury with representatives from Saab and the employer branding company Universum pointed out that Anna Pernestål “gives us a picture of a women in technology with a great drive who works in an international environment, close to the business with major focus on customer needs.” The jury further stated, “with experience in technology research and a burning interest in solving problems, she is successful in her role as project manager.”

The prize was instituted by Saab to promote interest in technology and highlight skilled women in the field. Anna Pernestål receives a study trip to a trade fair in Europe and a mentor at Saab.

Anna Pernestål trained in engineering physics and started as a trainee at Scania 2002. Her first assignment was in engine development and she subsequently developed new methods for vehicle diagnostics, which was also the subject of her PhD dissertation in 2009.

Mats Harborn, Executive Director of Scania China Strategic Centre in Beijing, explains that the visit is a step in Scania’s efforts to raise greater awareness in the Chinese market. “The journalists received a broad understanding of how Scania supplies vehicles and services that meet the needs of skilled transport companies and helps them to achieve sustainable profitability. We also gave them an insight into Scania’s core values and ways of working in addition to providing them with an opportunity to experience a West European trucking environment.”

During their visit to Scania, the journalists could test drive trucks at DemoCentre and later spend the night in Scania truck cabs. “It was really amazing to discover that a vehicle with an engine so powerful could be so silent,” says Senior Editor Mr Cheng at China’s oldest motor journal Auto Fan. “The cab comforts are excellent and the overview from a truck cab is something quite different from that of a passenger car.” After a night’s sleep in the cab, he feels thoroughly rested and impressed by the silence.

Upon waking, Senior Editor Mr Wang at the web site Sina was quick to share his experience with readers directly from his smartphone. “There are fundamental differences between the passenger car and heavy vehicle industries,” Mr Wang comments, while adding that there are also significant differences between Chinese and West European trucker culture.

At Scania, environmental issues have been important since the mid 1970s. Since then, Scania has continuously worked to reduce the environmental impact from not only its own operations but also from the trucks, buses and engines that the company manufactures.

Scania’s environmental work is a part of the daily operations and the company’s ambition is to always be one step ahead of future environmental legislation. This is reflected in one of Scania’s values which is ‘elimination of waste’. Scania’s strategy, along with continual improvements, has helped significantly in achieving its environmental goals.

Since the early 1990s, Scania has improved its efficiency by five percent a year. “Now we must sharpen our efforts,” says Anders Nielsen, Head of Production and Logistics.

Where and how is Scania investing in increased capacity?
“The investments will take place over the next few years and mainly at our existing cab, engine, gearbox and axle production units in Sweden. These units are still a very important hub in Scania’s operations.
“The investments will start to be noticeable in the second half of 2011. They consist of a combination of continued improvements in our production working methods plus some new machinery. But we don’t need to build any new production units. We can achieve a capacity of 150,000 vehicles within the same plant area. In other words, this will involve comparatively small investments, though with a large impact and high cost effectiveness.”

Scania’s production units in Sweden are located far from future growth markets, for example in Asia and the Middle East. Is this a problem?
“Not at all, we have built regional product centres in strategic locations around the world to move closer to customers. The idea behind these centres is that final vehicle assembly should occur as close to the customer as possible, even though most vehicle components come from our advanced production units in Europe and South America. Today we have regional product centres in Russia, South Africa, Dubai, Malaysia, Taiwan and South Korea.”

How will Scania be able to boost production with an unchanged number of employees?
 “By building further on our leadership model, in which we involve all employees in bringing about continuous improvements. This continuous effort − the Scania Production System (SPS) − is a powerful instrument for increasing productivity and an important element in our success. During the 2008-2009 crisis, we also placed greater emphasis on further training of our employees in these working methods. This provides a very good foundation for the future.”

What are your goals for production efficiency?
“Since the early 1990s, we have improved efficiency by five percent a year, which is very good. But we will have to sharpen our efforts to successfully expand to 150,000 vehicles with unchanged staffing by the next cyclical peak. We are working towards improving our efficiency from about eight vehicles per production employee per year today to 15 during the next peak.”

Read more articles in the shareholder magazine Scania Value

Scania’s earnings for the first half of 2011 amounted to SEK 6,652 m. Higher vehicle and service volume was offset by a significantly stronger Swedish krona, a higher cost level and an altered market mix.

· Operating income rose to SEK 6,652 m. (5,632), and earnings per share rose to SEK 6.18 (4.75)
· Net sales increased by 18 percent to SEK 43,665 m. (37,105)
· Cash flow amounted to SEK 3,218 m. (5,993) in Vehicles and Services

More information and webcasted press conference.