INTERVIEW
Scania has an optimistic view of the tough road ahead
Mark Smyth spoke with Raimo Lehtio, MD of Scania SA about the market, challenges and alternative fuel vehicles
This year will not go down as a great year for the automotive industry in SA. Sales have declined at double digit rates in many sectors. So it is not the best year to take over as the MD of a truck manufacturer. Could be worse, of course — you could be posted to Brazil. Raimo Lehtio has been the MD of Scania Southern Africa for about four months and while he admits there are challenges, he definitely prefers it here to his previous posting in Russia. Challenges Already he has travelled to all seven markets in the region, many of which are facing challenges of their own. Half of Scania’s used trucks go to other African markets, but things are not so healthy in the new vehicle arena. Lehtio says that the company will deliver some big mining trucks to Zimbabwe in 2017 but says that "things are difficult there". He says there is growth in some of our neighbouring countries, but the markets are not as big as SA. The company has made recent investments in Mozambique in spite of currency a...
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