DTp records 1988 vintage as best
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• New commercial vehicle registrations for 1988 are well on the way to smashing 1987's record levels, according to the latest Department of Transport figures.
November's registration figures show a 21% increase in goods vehicles of 1.5-tonnes and above compared with the same month in 1987. The heavier side of the market, 38tonne attics, shows an even bigger jump with registrations up by almost 40%.
Importers, however, have been taking a larger slice of the market, seizing almost 40% in the first 11 months of 1988 — an increase of 2%.
Vehicle production is also cashing in on the boom. During November, seasonally-adjusted production of 31,800 commercial vehicles was 3,000 units up on the previous month, the Department of Trade and Industry has revealed.
Taking the last six months as a whole, output was 36% above that of the previous sixmonth period, with production for both the export and the home market sharing the healthy increase.
Compared with the corresponding period of 1987, production was 43% higher, with production for export up by 55% and the home market up by 40%.
According to the Department of Trade and Industry, commercial vehicle production last year exceeded that of any year since 1980.