White Trucks - now Volvo NA

[G-CPTN]

By 1980, White was insolvent, AB Volvo acquired the U.S. assets of the company, Volvo produced trucks as White and Autocar through the 1980s, Volvo-White was merged with GMC's heavy truck business in 1987 creating the WhiteGMC brand, Volvo dropped any reference to White, and is now Volvo Trucks North America.

Some investigation reveals that engines are assembled in the US from castings imported from Sweden. I haven't discovered where the gearboxes are built, but they appear to be 'Swedish' (though ZF manufactures transmissions in the US.
http://www.volvo.com/trucks/na/en-us...engines/pt.htm
http://www.dieselnet.com/news/2006/02volvo.php
http://www.volvo.com/NR/rdonlyres/1F...printfinal.pdf
http://www.volvo.com/trucks/na/en-us...ishift_ILF.htm

I'm surprised at the amount of apparent input from Sweden.
The relative volumes of trucks sold in the USA compared to Sweden (and Europe) here:-
http://www.volvo.com/NR/rdonlyres/FB...fakt108eng.pdf
Volvo has assembly plants in Sweden, Belgium, USA, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, China, India and Russia,

The depth of the recession was revealed today as truckmaker Volvo admitted demand across the Continent has crashed by 99.7% as it took orders for just 115 new lorries in the last three months.
That compares to orders totalling 41,970 in the third quarter of 2007. Global orders for Volvo slumped 55% in the last three months while rival Scania said its western Europe truck orders collapsed by 69%.
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/investi...icle_id=456069

Heavy-vehicle maker Volvo Trucks said on Tuesday it was to give notice to 1,020 employees in Sweden, citing "very weak demand" in Europe and no sign of a recovery.
Volvo's Powertrain division, which makes engines and gearboxes used in its heavy vehicles as well as construction machinery, was also to cut some 600 jobs, the Volvo Group said.
http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-n...0114-7gbk.html

Meanwhile:-
Sweden's Volvo Trucks is set to open a new factory next week in Russia.
The launch of the 15,000 vehicle-a-year facility -- in the Kaluga region and which cost 100 million euros ($132.6 million) to build -- is scheduled for Jan. 19.
In recent months, the global financial crisis has hammered Russia's retailers and construction companies, two of the truck market's largest consumers, leaving producers of commercial vehicles unable to turn their stockpiles around.
'Nobody knows how they will survive in a situation where the market is falling,' said Vladimir Samoylov, a spokesman for Kamaz, Russia's largest truck maker, in which Germany's Daimler took a 10 percent stake last month.
In December, Kamaz halted production at its factories for one month, forecasting a 40 percent decline on the Russian truck market in 2009 and seeking to clear its inventory before producing any more machines.
http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited...fx5931735.html

[Western SMT]

Volvo is Latin for 'I Roll'
Two men, Assar Gabrielsson and Gustaf Larsen who had both worked for Svenska Kulgerfabriken, known better to us as SKF ball bearings were behind the formation of Volvo.