SA TRUCK MARKET CONTINUES STRONG RUN The South African truck market continued its strong performance Growth Shown in July by recording a 15% year-on-year increase, totaling 2 819 units. When looking at the year-to-date figures, the market is growing at an encouraging rate of 8.1% and currently stands on 17 666 units. This is according to the latest combined results released by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa), Associated Motor Holdings (AMH) and Amalgamated Automobile Distributors (AAD). “The performance of the local industry is in line with our market outlook and expectations,” said Jacques Carelse, managing director of UD Trucks Southern Africa. “The healthy state of the market can, to a large extent, be attributed to higher levels of investment spending relating to the numerous infrastructure development projects currently underway around the country.” Carelse also said that pre-emptive buying by fleet owners, who wanted to avoid further increases in new vehicle prices as a result of the weaker Rand, also attributed to the healthy growth of the industry during August. “It all makes for a highly competitive trading environment,” said Carelse. Looking at the year-to-date comparisons of the various market segments, Medium Commercial Vehicle sales increased by 11.5% to 6 624 units. Sales in the Heavy Commercial Vehicle segment grew by 7.2% to 3 037 units, while the Extra Heavy Commercial Vehicle segment continued its strong run with 7 431 total sales, an increase of 8.2% Bus sales continued on its downward trend, with the 574 unit sales recorded so far this year signifying an18.6% decline. Looking at the remainder of the year, Carelse said that growth is expected to slow down as a result of the country’s subdued economic growth. “Even taking into account some expected inflation-linked new vehicle price increases, we still believe the market will grow between 3 and 4% during 2013,” said Carelse.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Aug 2013 09:00:57 +0000
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