Volvo to ramp up output and investments in Curitiba plant
By Jim Gibbins - 1st April 2019
Brazil - After a spectacular year in 2018, which saw sales expand by almost 80%, Volvo América Latina Group of Curitiba, State of Paraná announced in February plans to expand operations in Brazil during 2019 and started with the hire of 300 new employees to increase production at the Curitiba plant (PR). This additional labour, which would take the total factory workforce to 3,700 employees is intended to increase truck output during the second shift of production. Volvo said the lack of production capacity had prevented it from expanding sales even more in 2018. (During the crisis the total factory employees had been reduced to 2,800 people).
Volvo also announced plans to make investments in the Brazilian operations and notably on new product development of more than 250 million Brazilian Reals (USD65m) in 2020, according to Volvo Latin America President Wilson Lirmann. This sum is addition to an investment allocation of BRA1bn (USD250m) that is in progress for the period from 2017 to 2019.
