OSLO, May 13 (Reuters) – Sweden’s Volvo Cars is open to cooperation with other companies in the United States as the auto maker seeks to better utilise the existing production capacity at its South Carolina plant, the company’s CEO said on Wednesday.
Auto makers worldwide are scrambling to rethink their production strategies to contend with President Donald Trump’s duties on foreign cars, part of his wider policy to boost U.S. manufacturing.
Volvo Cars, which has set out several plans for building more cars in the U.S., is open to cooperation in assembly and construction as well as in sourcing and supply chain activities, CEO Hakan Samuelsson told the FT “Future of the Car” conference.
“That is something I think we need as we are now increasing our presence in the U.S.,” Samuelsson said.
“It’s part of the regionalisation of the world, we need to be much more industrially present in the U.S. and we need to fill the factory we have there,” he added.
Volvo Cars is majority-owned by China’s Geely Holding.
(Reporting by Terje Solsvik; editing by Niklas Pollard)
