Truck bosses review 1981
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• MAN had a good year last year, says chairman Wilfried Lochte.
It produced 23,331 trucks and buses: 725 vehicles (3.2%) more than in 1986.
Speaking at last week's Amsterdam motor show, Lochte said that the "all-important" west European truck market was increasing in volume all of the time, and that new registration figures for last year had been only 4% below the peak year of 1979.
MAN upped its home-market share by 10% in 1987 over 1986 by selling 11,220 units, and its share of markets such as Britain, Spain, the Netherlands and France by a staggering 21.6%, delivering 8,474 units there. Lochte described the increases as representing "above-average market development".
The F90 range of MAN tractive units had been the spur to this success, especially in MAN's traditionally strong market of 11.6 tonnes and above, he said. More than 10,000 F90s have been built since production began in the summer of 1986.
According to Lochte, growth patterns would, generally speaking, continue and that exports to non-European countries would keep on growing. He did not think that 1988 would be as big in European market terms as last year, but added: "Up to the present time, demand and new orders have developed more favourably than predicted." 1=1 Saab Scania vice-president Ingvar Erickson, also speaking in Amsterdam last week, shared Lochte's gloomy outlook for 1988. World truck demand would decline this year, he predicted.
He reported that 1987 had been a very successful year with Scania delivering 30,700 trucks and buses, including 2,817 trucks to the UK which was the company's second biggest market.
During 1987, Scania delivered its 500,000th vehicle. Erickson told Commercial Motor that Scania had increased production by an average of 9.5% a year for the last three years. It now claimed 7% of the world market and 13.2% of the European market for vehicles of 16 tonnes-andabove markets, and 15% of the heavy tractive unit market.
Over the next five years, Scania would increase production by around 20% but, according to Erickson. "This will be achieved without introducing any models lighter than 16 tonnes."
At Renault, sales director Shemaya Levy reported that production last year had been 12% up on 1986 in the fivetonnes-plus market, and 10.8% up on 1986 in the market below five tonnes.
Levy told the Amsterdam show that Renault's bus and coach performance had been more lacklustre, with production down by 8.2% or 2,408 units. The UK plants had built 4,532 vehicles last year (42.2% up on 1986) in the five-tonnesand-over sector, and 266 vehicles in the market below five tonnes. France, Spain and the UK continued to be good Remault markets and it was concentrating its efforts now on West Germany, Italy and Scandinavia. "Our goal is to hold a 14% share of the 1992 unified European market," said Levy.
The MAN F90 range of tractor units has won the "Golden Piston" award from the Geneva-based drivers' organisation UICR for "outstanding fuel economy."