Sweden's Volvo, the world's second-largest maker of trucks, reported a sharp fall in annual profits Thursday and announced 1,000 redundancies in its construction equipment business which was hit by falling demand from China. The group's net profits plunged 41 percent in 2014 to 2.1 billion kronor ($254 million, 223 million euros) compared to the previous year, largely due to a 30 percent drop in construction equipment deliveries towards the end of the year.
"In China demand for new equipment dropped significantly as a result of low machine utilisation following the reduced mining and construction activity," Volvo chief executive Olof Persson said in a statement.