UK truck market continues to slow
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THE SLOW DOWN in the UK truck market worsened last month and, with just a couple of weeks remaining, new truck registrations for 2012 look likely to end at only 7% above last year's total.
The latest registrations data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) shows that registrations of new trucks over 3.5-tonne GVW in November were 13.7% down on the same month last year. The UK truck market started the year strongly, with the first half up by 26%. But then 21 consecutive months of rises came to an end — registrations first levelled out and then began to fall. The 2012 total now looks likely to be close to 46,000, around 7% up on last year's total.
Focusing on the market for 'real' trucks of 6-tonne GVW or more, the total for the 11 months so far is 6.3% ahead of last year. The year-end total is likely to reach about 38,500, some 3% above last year's total of 37,410.
Although November was a poor month, Daf Trucks remains the leader of the 6 tonnes-plus market in the UK, with a market share running at 29.6% for the year to date. This is four percentage points up on Daf's share last year. Then comes Mercedes-Benz (16.3%) and Scania (11.9%), followed by MAN (11.2%) and Volvo Trucks (10.2%). Iveco and Renault Trucks finished last year neck and neck but Iveco has edged ahead in 2012, with a market share of 7.6% to Renault's 6.8%.