Steady movement in July for local truck market

MARKET COMMENT

The truck market showed reasonable growth in July, with the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers SA describing increases as “encouraging gains”.

The medium commercial vehicle market increased by 15.90% at 701 units in July compared to the corresponding month in 2017. However, it still has some work to do to recover the year-to-date decline of 4.30% against the same period in 2017. Heavy commercial vehicles weighing between 8,501kg and 16,500kg were also up by 29.80% at 484 units in July. Mercedes-Benz, which still fails to report specific sales figures, saw an increase of 10.30% in the segment in contrast to its declines in the passenger car market. The year-to-date figure is up by the slimmest of margins at 0.60%, although here Mercedes’ sales are down 19.70% against the same period in 2017.

Extra-heavy commercial vehicle sales showed a slight increase of 2.40% for the month, with Mercedes down 2.60% in spite of the recent arrival of the not-so-new Actros.

There is good news for the segment so far in 2018, though, with sales up 11.10%, despite Mercedes being down 13.30%. Exports also rose in July for the segment, but the year-to-date is not looking so healthy, with exports down 27.60%.

Percentage fluctuations in the bus market tend not to portray an accurate picture due to the low volumes involved, but July saw the market sell 74 units, down 23.70%, with Mercedes selling 12. To date the bus market is down 7.90% but exports of 83 units so far in 2018 means a huge 654.50% increase on 2017.