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STOCKHOLM — Swedish truck maker AB Volvo on Tuesday reported its third consecutive quarterly loss as sales plunged by one-third amid weak demand in the April-June period.
Volvo posted a net loss of 5.56 billion kronor ($718 million) in the second quarter, compared with a profit of 5.1 billion kronor in the same period last year.
Sales fell 33 percent to 54.0 billion kronor, from 80.4 billion kronor in the second quarter of 2008.
"The truck market remains weak in our main markets in Europe, North America and Japan," Volvo CEO Leif Johansson said in a statement.
Truck deliveries declined by 57 percent compared with the second quarter of 2008, and by 9 percent from the first quarter of this year. However, Volvo said its order bookings were up 32 percent from the low level of the first quarter.
"We see that the decline in demand has started to level off and that the markets have stabilized, even though it is still difficult to predict the rest of the year," Johansson said.
Volvo maintained its forecast that the European market for heavy trucks would be "at least halved" this year and that the North American market would decline by 30-40 percent.
Volvo shares closed down 1.4 percent at 52.25 kronor in Stockholm.
"At first glance it looked bad," Evli Bank analyst Michael Andersson said. "But when you take out one-off items the underlying results were better than expected."
The company said it took a 3.2 billion kronor hit from increased provisions for credit losses, lay-off related costs and write-downs on inventories during the second quarter.
Goteborg-based Volvo also makes buses, engines and construction equipment. It sold its car division to U.S.-based Ford Motor Co. in 1999.
