STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Swedish truck and construction equipment group Volvo said that it had landed contracts from the US government worth about 30 million dollars (24.4 million euros) to deliver construction equipment to Iraq.
Volvo Construction Equipment has agreed to deliver more than 200 units of construction equipment, including 120 wheel loaders, to the Iraqi government over the next two years to help with the reconstruction of the war-torn country, the company said in a statement.
The equipment will be manufactured and assembled at Volvo plants in Sweden, Canada, Germany, Poland and the United States, and shipped to the Iraqi cities of Baghdad and Basra starting next month, the company added.
Only companies based in countries within the World Trade Organization or in the US-led coalition in Iraq were eligible to bid for the contracts, Volvo stated, claiming that it had faced stiff competition from other major international equipment makers.
"The primary reasons for the selection of Volvo products included its building of equipment to high performance specifications and standards, equipment with the capabilities of operating efficiently in extremely tough physical working conditions. And we are also able to meet very strict and critical delivery time requirements," Volvo CE's director of governmental sales in North America James Peesker said in the statement.