The slow down in the UK truck market worsened last month and with just a couple of weeks remaining, new truck registrations during 2012 look likely to end just 7% above last year’s total.
The latest registrations data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) show that registrations of new trucks over 3.5-tonnes GVW in November were 13.7% down on the same month last year. The UK truck market started the year strongly and the first half total was 26% up on last year’s. But then 21 consecutive months of rises came to an end and 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 tonnes 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 by its own standards, Daf Trucks remains the comfortable leader of the 6.0 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%.
The van market has been weak all year and November was another poor month, with registrations of all vans up to 3.5-tonnes GVW down by 16.4% on the same month last year. The year to date total is 7.4% down. “We look forward to next year where greater stability should see the van market return to slow, but steady growth," said SMMT chief executive Paul Everitt.
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