Truck sales continued to climb by a noteworthy 10.2%, to 20 500 units during August and year-on-year sales results for August also show a 26.9% increase on sales, reaching a total of 2 844 units.*
Jacques Carelse, MD of UD Trucks Southern Africa says, “The encouraging sales performance in the Medium, Heavy and Extra Heavy Commercial Vehicle segments is an indication of a higher level of investment spending in the economy as a result of various infrastructure development projects.” “We also believe that the higher sales rate was driven by some pre-emptive buying by fleet owners who wanted to avoid further price increases, which are imminent due to the weaker Rand exchange rate.” Looking at the performance of the various truck market segments in a year-to-date comparison with 2012, Medium Commercial Vehicle (MCV) sales increased by 13% to 7 659 units. The Heavy Commercial Vehicle (HCV) segment experienced a 9.2% growth to reach 3 477 units, which is significantly higher than in previous years. Sales in the Extra Heavy Commercial Vehicle segment grew by 10.8% to 8 673 units. The 691 Bus sales recorded represents a 13.2% decline when compared to the same period in 2012.
Carelse adds “The latter part of the year seems to hold a less promising outlook with various factors expected to have a dampening effect on new truck sales.”
“On-going labour disputes in the automotive sector and potential prolonged industry action at South African gold mines will have a definite impact on the sales within the truck industry, as its growth is closely linked to that of the economy in general.” In addition, business confidence also experienced a quarter-on-quarter decline of six points to 42, which will certainly affect truck sales adversely.” UD Trucks Southern Africa earlier estimated a total of 29 000 expected trucks sales for the year. *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).
