The South African truck market demonstrated ongoing resilience in the first quarter of 2017, despite political and economic turmoil, says UD Trucks Southern Africa MD Gert Swanepoel.
However, South Africa’ s recent downgrade by two ratings agencies will determine if the marginal growth achieved by the industry to date will hold up or be eroded.
“The next few months will be critical in determining the path we, as a country, will follow. Leadership in all spheres of business, but mostly in government, will be key,” says Swanepoel.
“The adage ‘cometh the hour, cometh the man (or woman)’ will now be more relevant than ever.
According to the latest sales results released by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa and Imperial’s Motus Corporation, the country’s total new-truck market increased 16.9% in March to 2 618 units, compared with the same month last year.
This brought the South African total new-truck market to 6 416 units for the first quarter of 2017, a 3.9% increase on the same period last year.
During the first three months of the year, sales in the medium commercial vehicle segment expanded by 3.3% to 1 993 units, compared with the first quarter of 2016.
Sales in the heavy commercial vehicle segment increased by 11.9% to 1 355 units, while the extra-heavy commercial segment grew by 2.2% to 2 837 units.
The only segment that failed to achieve growth for the first three months of the year was the bus market, registering a 10.5% decline to a total of 231 new units.
“Even amidst all the turbulence, we believe the dust will settle and the steady slog towards growth in the truck industry will begin once more,” notes Swanepoel.
“We still expect the South African commercial vehicle market to grow by an estimated 3% during 2017 to around 28 998 units.”