Volvo Cars profit in 2012 slumps

STOCKHOLM -- The profit of Volvo Car Group slumped by 99.1 percent in 2012, being strongly affected by the economic situation in Europe, said the company in a statement on Friday.

The operating income of Volvo Cars amounted to 18 million Swedish kronor ($2.75 million) in 2012, a dramatic fall compared to the 2.017 billion Swedish kronor ($308.3 million) in 2011.

Meanwhile in 2012 the net revenue of the company reached 124.5 billion Swedish kronor ($19 billion), which was close to that in 2011, 125.7 billion Swedish kronor ($19.2 billion).

The total number of cars sold last year was 433,000, a drop of 6.1 percent compared to the same period in 2011.

Regarding the uncertain economic situation in Europe, which lead to the decrease in both sales and income, the company was focusing on the adjustment of costs with reference to the change in sales in the first half of last year.

At the same time Volvo Cars was continuing its long-term investment, which the group's transformation process required.

"We are right in the process of the biggest transformation in our group's histroy," said Hakan Samuelsson, the President and CEO of Volvo Car Group.

"Despite the the challenged market condition, we will continue to invest in the important technical system such as VEA (Volvo Engine Architecture) and SPA (Scalable Product Architecture)," Samuelsson added.

In 2013 the company would still face the challenged economic situation in the European car industry where Volvo Cars would focus on increasing sales volume due to the fierce competition in the market.

However, the Chinese and the American markets were expected to continue to grow due to the increasing demand.