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Volvo Shuffles Truck Production in Cost-Cutting Effort

* To move cab output to Gothenburg from Umea

* To concentrate medium-duty truck assembly in Blainville

* Move to affect about 900 staff, some will lose their jobs

* Action part of group-wide efficiency drive (Adds detail, background, quotes)

STOCKHOLM, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Truck maker Volvo is moving some of its production from plants in Umea, Sweden, and Ghent, Belgium, as part of a three year drive aimed at cutting costs and boosting profits across the sprawling group.

The relocation of cab production to Gothenburg in western Sweden and a concentration of medium-duty truck assembly to Blainville, France, would be carried out over two years and affect about 900 staff, 700 of which were employed in Sweden, the company said on Wednesday.

It did not say how many employees were likely to lose their jobs as a result of the moves.

Volvo, which competes for market leadership with Germany's Daimler, said last year it would restructure its business in a bid to boost its operating margin by 3 percentage points by the end of 2015 to just under 12 percent.

The Swedish group's profitability has tended to lag that of its domestic rival Scania, controlled by Volkswagen , a thorn in the side of Volvo management looking to go head-to-head with Daimler in a consolidating truck industry.

"Today's European industrial structure for truck manufacturing is partly the result of acquisitions and we now intend to use the various plants in an optimal way," Volvo Chief Executive Olof Persson said.

Volvo, which sells trucks under the Renault, Mack and UD Trucks brands as well as its own name, said last month its efficiency push would generate savings of 4 billion crowns ($615 million) and one-off costs of 5 billion.

The actions announced on Wednesday were a "minor part" of the financial impact of the efficiency drive, the company said.

"The directional decision includes staff cutbacks, as well as operational changes and will be subject to trade union consultations," the company said, adding the moves were aimed at cutting the manufacturing cost per vehicle.

Persson, the bespectacled economist who took the helm in 2011 after only five years at Volvo, has championed the revamp set in motion after huge losses during the global financial crisis highlighted the group's vulnerability to cyclical swings.

While cutting costs in mature markets such as Europe, the strategy also leans heavily on a push into emerging markets with less costly trucks tailored to fit market demand there and produced in countries such as India, China and Thailand.

($1 = 6.4989 Swedish crowns) (Reporting by Niklas Pollard and Helena Soderpalm; Editing by Mark Potter)