Recession ‘catch-up’ boosts heavy truck sector

The recovery from the 2009 recession saw extra-heavy truck sales increase drastically in 2011 making the segment the top achiever last year, said UD Trucks Southern Africa (UDTSA) corporate planning and marketing GM Rory Schulz. Speaking at a press conference in Johannesburg last week, Schulz said due to the replacement of vehicles the segment grew by 35.41% in 2011 compared to the 5.69% growth of heavy trucks. “The recovery of the mineral and mining industry also played a major role as the extraheavies are mostly used for the transportation of mining commodities,” he said. “We expect this growth however to slow down in 2012 and only forecast a growth of 10.96% this year.” Heavy trucks, however, are expected to be on the wanted list in the coming months with growth of around 17.95% forecast. “This will be because of the lack of product in 2011 due to the Japan crisis that resulted in high back orders. There is still major recovery taking place as many vehicles have yet to be delivered for new projects or replaced in other cases,” said Schulz. Johan Richards, CEO of UDTSA, said despite the negative factors that affected the industry, the 2011 sales results showed that the market still had a lot going for it. In addition, he said, on the product side, there would be a lot more focus on efficiency, mainly as a result of increased costs across the board. “We believe that truck owners will be looking to reduce fuel consumption as well as maintenance and service costs. The company believes that longhaul vehicles will be used to maximum capacity and that the construction industry will improve considerably during 2012 after hitting quite low levels in 2011,” said Richards. “We also foresee a number of possible price increases on trucks in January 2012 as a result of the adverse effect of exchange rates on the local market.”