The South African truck market is continuing to be under immense pressure with June 2015 registering the sixth consecutive month of declining sales this year.
The half-year sales figures released by the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa), Associated Motor Holdings (AMH) and Amalgamated Automobile Distributors (AAD), shows an overall 5% decline in sales when compared to the first six months of 2014. June’s total sales of 2 460 units were also 0.64% down on May 2015’s results.
Heavy Commercial Vehicles (HCV) is the only segment that logged year-on-year growth over the first six months of 2015, increasing sales by 5.5% to 2 628 units.
The investment-driven Extra Heavy Commercial Vehicle segment declined by 7.31% to 6 325 units. Sales in the Medium Commercial Vehicle segment have also not been spared logging 4 857 sales at the end of June for a 7.47% decline. Bus sales remained flat with a slight 0.52% decline in sales to reach 569 units.
“When analysing South African truck sales from the first half of 2015, it is clear that local economic conditions and a lack of confidence in future growth, are really starting to hit the market hard,” says Rory Schulz, managing director of UD Trucks South Africa. “Electricity supply challenges, fuel increases and anticipated interest rate hikes are continuing to dampen vehicle sales.”
The outlook for the rest of the year remains unfavourable with stagnant economic growth predicted.
