UPDATE 2-Scania CEO says customers more cautious - paper

(Adds analyst comment in paras 8-9, background, updates share)

STOCKHOLM, April 17 (Reuters) - Swedish truck maker Scania's (SCVb.ST) customers have grown more hesitant after the financial turmoil and credit crisis of recent months, its top executive said in comments published by a newspaper on Thursday.

The global credit crunch and accompanying economic slowdown have so far had limited effect on Sweden's export-oriented industrial powerhouses and the outlook for the European truck market, Scania biggest source of revenues, has remained robust.

But Ostling told Sweden's Dagens Industri truck buyers were beginning to take heed of the growing financial malaise.

"We feel that many of our customers are cautious and also that they are pulling out of some agreed purchases," he was quoted as saying by the business daily.

A spokeswoman told Reuters the comments did not refer to an increased rate of cancellations of orders, but rather a greater hesitance among customers in placing them.

"We see that our customers are a little bit more hesitant about placing order, and that is due to the credit worries," Scania's Cecilia Edstrom said.

Scania's shares opened more than 2 percent lower on the news, but recovered some of the decline to trade 0.8 percent lower at 126 crowns by 0756 GMT to underperform a 0.4 percent dip in the Stockholm blue-chip index .OMXS30.

"I think it is very natural that customers hesitate placing orders in light of the fact that order books are so long. And since things are a bit uncertain, one can wait for a while," Swedbank analyst Anders Bruzelius said.

"Now they are saying that cancellations have not increased, and that is what I was afraid might have happened. That is what is important here. What is new is that the comments are coming from Scania, but the comments that European customers are more hesitant placing orders have been heard before elsewhere in the industry."

they (the comments) that European customers are more hesitant placing orders, is not news to the industry."

Sweden's top industrial firms have largely been left unscathed by the spill-over from the U.S. mortgage crisis and ensuing credit crunch, though Scania rival Volvo's (VOLVb.ST) North American sales have been dented.

Scania, which does not operate in the U.S. market, in February raised its outlook for annual sales growth in 2007 to 2009 and was upbeat about market prospects when delivering its fourth-quarter report in February.

But Ostling struck a more sombre note in the comments published on Thursday.

"The credit worries are spreading and the industry will in some way be affected by this. Increased difficulties in financing operations and projects naturally weigh on operations," he was quoted as saying by the paper.

Scania, in which Volkswagen (VOWG.DE) took majority control in a $4 billion deal with Sweden's Wallenberg family, is scheduled to issue its first-quarter earnings report on April 28. (Reporting by Niklas Pollard and Victoria Klesty; Editing by Erica Billingham, Paul Bolding)