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January Truck Sales Point to Some Market Grow ...
Unreported December Sales Restrict 2011 Truck ...
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HINO Moves Aggressively into Waste Management ...
Unreported December Sales Restrict 2011 Truck Market Volume.
A decision by Mercedes Benz SA Pty (Ltd) to withhold its December sales data has resulted in the final year total for 2011 being restricted to 26 248 units, which is some way off the anticipated level that had been indicated by the market's consistently strong performance through the second half of the year. The total sales volume of 1 215 units reported last month to the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (NAAMSA) was, therefore, the lowest recorded for any month of the entire year, and 20,9% below the equivalent total recorded in December, 2010.
The December, 2011 market composition was made up of 520 Medium Commercial Vehicles (GVM ratings between 3 501 kg and 8 500 kg), 239 Heavy Commercials (goods vehicles with GVM ratings between 8 501 kg and 16 500 kg), 395 Extra Heavy Commercials (goods vehicles with GVM ratings above 16 500 kg) and 61 passenger Buses with GVM ratings above 8 500 kg. (Please note that these volumes also include aggregated MCV sales recorded by Associated Motor Holdings and Amalgamated Automobile Distributors, presently made up exclusively of Hyundai-branded light truck models).
Dr. Casper Kruger, Vice President of Hino in South Africa, comments: "As expected, commercial vehicle deliveries during the month of December declined substantially below the norm established in the immediately preceding months, which can be partially explained by the reduced number of trading days available during the month, which, in effect, consisted of only two working weeks. However, this decline was greatly exacerbated by the absence of sales normally reported by Mercedes Benz SA (Pty) Ltd who is broadly represented in all areas of the local market, and, in fact, the leading player in the premium payload XHCV segment.
Kruger continues: "Even as it stands, the 2011 total truck, bus and van market has returned 19,2% growth over the 2010 year result of 22 021 units, and has exhibited a substantial swing in favour of the XHCV segment, which accounted for 44,5% of the available sales, up from 38,6% last year. This market share improvement has been mainly at the expense of the heavy passenger Bus category, down from its Soccer World Cup-enhanced performance of 7,1% in 2010, to a more modest 3,8% in 2011, and the cruiserweight HCV segment, which gave up exactly two percentage points of penetration from its 2010 level of 20%. At least some of the latter decline can be ascribed to product supply constraints suffered by the Japanese brands dominating the HCV category, in the wake of the tsunami and earthquake events that devastated manufacturing capacity in that country during March, 2011".
"The MCV category has held up well in 2011, improving its market share performance by nearly one full percentage point over its 2010 level, to end at 35%. This is significant, given that many of the chassis/cab products in this segment are also Japanese-sourced, and that MCV products are employed in a wide variety of business areas active in the retail and service sectors of the economy, as well as public utilities, and the long distance arm of the taxi industry. Some early signs of consumer revival in an otherwise lacklustre national macro-economic environment during the second half of 2011 has provided additional impetus to this vehicle category".
Kruger concludes: "At this very early stage in 2012, the short-term outlook for the truck market in the year ahead remains positive, given that product availability has been a constraining influence on reported volumes during the latter months of 2011. Current levels of demand are expected to prevail through the first quarter of 2012, but the picture beyond that will depend largely on the unfolding of overseas events, and the measure of success achieved by local government and business in addressing the challenges posed by foreign exchange currency fluctuation, volatile international oil prices, and varying commodity demand levels among South Africa's international trading partners. The local supply industry will need to exhibit considerable management flexibility and agility to ensure that the critical balance between supply and demand is achieved".