Volvo, the world’s second-largest maker of trucks after Germany’s Daimler AG, said demand for vehicles was so far showing no signs of cooling due to worries about the global macro-economic outlook.

“If you look at our order intake, or if you look at what we see and hear from our customers, we do not see any sign of a downturn here,” Chief Executive Leif Johansson told a news conference.

The picture was slightly different in China, where the company said demand was slowing from high levels.

It downgraded its outlook for the market of its second-largest division, construction equipment, to growth of 15-25 percent from 20-30 percent.

“The Chinese market has slowed down as a consequence of measures by the government to curtail inflation,” it said.

Johansson said he did not see the Chinese situation as the start of a “real downturn.”

“We will maybe get away from the slight boom-bust which has existed in China. So I think a little pause for breath would be good in China,” he told Reuters.

Johansson, due in September to leave the company after 14 years at its helm, said in a statement that group sales were now at the same level as before the financial crisis, with profitability at its highest so far.

The Swedish group, which makes heavy-duty trucks under the Renault, Mack, UD Trucks and Eicher brands, reported operating profit rose 60 percent to 7.65 billion crowns ($1.2 billion), compared with a forecast 7.67 billion in a Reuters poll.

In contrast, Swedish rival Scania saw weaker-than-expected margins bite into quarterly earnings.

Volvo repeated a forecast for the truck markets in Europe and North America of 230,000-240,000 units each this year.

“This is better than expected,” said Handelsbanken Capital Markets analyst Hampus Engellau, pointing in particular to the operating profit margin in the trucks division of 10 percent, which beat a Reuters poll forecast of 9.5 percent.

“Order intake is a bit better than expected in Europe and North America, and a bit worse in Latin America, but overall good,” he added.

He said the confirmed truck forecast was “good when considering the macro factors.”

Volvo expected Japan to recover from a 26 percent fall in the first half after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, with the full-year market seen down 6 percent.

One analyst, who declined to be named, played down the impact of the construction equipment downgrade.

“It was pretty well known that China was not going as well people believed a quarter ago,” the analyst said.