IFT dismisses slump
Page 8
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• 1 veco Ford Truck reckons that between 58,000 and 64,000 commercial vehicles over 3.5 tonnes GVW will be registered this year, a drop of between 7.6% and 16.2% from last year's record.
But the company is confident that the British truck industry is not heading for a repeat of the 1980 slump. Even if truck registrations drop as low as IFT's worst estimate of 58,000 units, the market will still be at the same level as 1987.
Iveco Ford marketing director David Gill says: "We're not in for a boom year, but it is still going to be a good market overall" Managing director Alan Fox, however, sees no immediate end to the four-day week at his Langley factory: Cargo production lines have not been at full stretch since the beginning of the New Year.
British trucks continue to get younger; we have one of the newest national vehicle parcs in Europe. Residual values were good overall, last year, says Iveco Ford, but this year they will decline again. The company thinks that high interest rates will force many hauliers to work to a threeyear replacement policy.
"There has been a 60% increase in monthly instalments for the average haulier buying new trucks," says product manager Ron Armstrong, comparing spring 1988 with the autumn of last year.
Market trends to watch, says Iveco Ford, will be the decline in the four-axle HGV market as the construction industry winds down; the continuing rise of maximum power options as more and more operators specify trucks with big engines, and ERF's growth in market share.