Volvo Group, the Euro 27 billion commercial vehicle maker of Sweden, plans to expand the construction equipment and road development machines business in India.

This move comes after the company’s recent global acquisition of Ingersoll Rand’s heavy road construction equipment division for $1.3 billion. IR has a manufacturing plant in Bangalore.
According to Eric Leblanc, Managing Director, Volvo India Private Limited, the company will use the facility of Ingersoll Rand at Bangalore to produce machines like excavators and loaders for the Indian market. Leblanc said the company is in the process of integrating the operations of Ingersoll Rand (IR) with itself in Bangalore.

“We have completed the acquisition transaction globally a month ago and are currently integrating the sales and distribution of road machinery business of IR with Volvo. We do intend to use their plant to produce other global construction equipment products in India.” Talking to Business Standard, he said IR has a very good engineering base in Bangalore and Volvo will use that to reduce the price of various construction equipment in the domestic market. The company will introduce Volvo brand name on the construction equipment made by IR in Bangalore.

“Over the next 12 months we will launch new range of products. We already have road development machines in our portfoilio like motor graders which will be further expanded,” he said. Volvo will expand the product range of heavy road construction equipment and road making machinery, Leblanc said adding that Volvo will further grow its market share in the Indian market. Presently, Volvo has 13 per cent market share in the excavator range in the country, behind L&T Komatsu, Tata Hitachi. Last year, Volvo sold about 800 machines like excavators, wheel loaders and graders worth about $100 million in India.

“Right now we don’t have any production capacity for excavators in India. We import excavators from Volvo’s Korean plant and sell in India. We are looking to manufacture excavators in India but as of now no decision has been taken in this regard. There is a potential to make them in India,” Leblanc added. Volvo estimates the global market for road construction equipment is worth about $4 billion a year and will probably grow as governments spend more money on infrastructure. –>

As soon as the discovery was made public, having been spotted depositing Volvo’s treasure in an entirely different area, questions started circulating as to the real provenance of the ‘Black Swan.’ Was it a Spanish shipwreck? Had Odyssey been working on shipwrecks in Spanish waters? Unable to reveal the exact location of the ‘Black Swan,’ in the Atlantic Ocean because of obvious security reasons, and under a non-disclosure agreement with Volvo to protect the location of its treasure chest, Odyssey found itself in the eye of a media storm that has yet to abate. Reports have been widely circulated that a court in the Spanish coastal town of La Linea has issued an order for the Spanish Guardia Civil to detain any Odyssey vessel should it leave the port of Gibraltar, putting Volvo’s retrieval plans on hold.

About Odyssey Marine Exploration and “ZEUS.”

Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. is engaged in the exploration of deep- water shipwrecks and uses innovative methods and state-of-the-art technology to conduct extensive deep-ocean search and recovery operations around the world. The company was founded by industry pioneers John Morris and Greg Stemm. The ZEUS remotely operated vehicle (ROV) is the centerpiece of an advanced robotic archeology system. It is rated to operate at depths to 8,200 feet and is driven by eight powerful hydraulic thrusters. The system’s cameras feed high-definition video signals through advanced fiberoptic telemetry to the surface.
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Volvo’s treasure hunt promotion coincided with the release of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. The prize of $50,000 in gold and the keys to a new Volvo were buried somewhere near Davey Jones’ locker on the ocean floor, but until today there was no word on which lucky treasure hunter had navigated the mess of riddles and clues to find it.

Actually there is already a winner. 23-year-old Alena Zvereva from Ekaterinburg, Russia has been chosen but her prize will have to remain wet a little while longer as Odyssey Marine Exploration, the deep-ocean shipwreck exploration company with which Volvo partnered, has found real treasure somewhere in the Atlantic. The real booty consists of $500 million worth of gold and silver coins at a secret deep ocean site that Odyssey has named the ‘Black Swan’.

The retrieval of the prize chest will hang in the balance until controversy dies down over the discovery of real life treasure by Volvo’s Hunt partner, Odyssey Marine Exploration. Prior to the discovery, Volvo selected Odyssey, the world leader in deep-ocean shipwreck exploration, to sink a treasure chest with one goal: to create an authentic, exciting treasure hunt to promote Disney’s ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.’ Veiled in secrecy, Odyssey scouted locations in the Western Mediterranean, finally zeroing in on a perfect spot off the coast of Gibraltar. They had planned to take the winner out to retrieve the treasure from the secret location just when the operation hit an extraordinary find. Odyssey discovered a real buried treasure estimated to worth about $500 million in coins.

The exploration hasn’t revealed any development about the treasure find. Most of the information are top secret. However whatever happens, Zvereva will receive $50,000 and a new Volvo XC70.

The Volvo XC70 is a station wagon that covers the best of the best Volvo standard and optional equipment, safety features and overall driving performance.
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