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January 2002 CV market up by 6.7 per cent

06 February 2002 #HGVs #Registrations #SMMT News

January 2002 CV market up by 6.7 per cent

Total CV Registrations in January

‘January was an excellent start to the year for the UK new CV market,’ said

SMMT chief executive Christopher Macgowan. ‘A very strong monthly total, only

bettered recently by January 1998, is a sign of continuing confidence in a market

where the pace of growth continues to surprise most analysts.

‘The market made sustained progress over the second half of 2001 and the trend

appears to be robust enough to last into and perhaps beyond the first quarter

of the year. Since August 2001 the UK market for new CVs has seen six consecutive

months of growth.’

Despite the economic uncertainties of the immediate past, the market for new

CVs continues to look very positive. The rise in 2001 was supported by robust

growth in a variety of service sector and distribution markets and these are

still expected to support economic growth in 2002. The year as a whole should

also prove to be very positive for the UK new CV market.

Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) Registrations

The LCV market volume achieved the highest total since 1998 when 19,413 new

LCVs were registered. The year on year growth at 6.8 per cent was spread across

most segments of the LCV sector, although the pattern of growth in the sector

has been variable in the past three to six months. In general, light vans (up

to 1.8t gvw) have seen weak monthly growth while the medium and heavy van sectors

have fared much better. 4×4 utilities, after struggling for a number of years

to mid-2001, recently started a strong revival. In January the light van segment

built on the growth in December with a 4.2 per cent increase and the medium

and heavy sector continued to develop strongly. The 4×4 utilities segment again

posted a very strong year on year monthly change of 33.5 per cent.

While there have been a number of structural changes affecting the mix of new

vans purchased, the drive to purpose-built as opposed to car derived vans and

the general popularity of heavier vans, has made the market as a whole grow

strongly. In January LCVs accounted for around 82 per cent of all new CV registrations.

New Registrations of Trucks

Growth in truck demand in January was 6.6 per cent, close to the average for

all CVs. In this very varied sector the overall market for rigid vehicles recorded

growth of 4.9 per cent while that for artics was up by 10.4 per cent. Two axle

artics, with growth of 19.5 per cent led the growth momentum, but overall volume

is about half of that of three axle artics. Growth of three axle artics was

up by 6.8 per cent.

The rigid market is varied and market performance is often diverse. January

showed that the average growth of 4.9 per cent masked a growth rate of 56.5

per cent for two axle light trucks (3.5 to 7.4t gvw) and a fall of 34.1 per

cent for two axle rigids (12 to 15t gvw). The two main weight ranges in the

two axle rigid segment, 7.4 to 7.5t gvw and over 15t gvw, recorded changes in

registration volume for the month respectively down by 2.5 per cent and up by

15.5 per cent. Within the multi axle rigid segment growth of 10.8 per cent in

four axle vehicles could not overturn a fall of 12.9 per cent in three axle

vehicles, registrations for multi axle rigids as a whole fell by 3.5 per cent.

New Bus & Coach Registrations

Bus and coach registrations were up by 8.0 per cent in January wholly due to

a surge of 188.6 per cent in registrations of 101 new coaches. Despite this

welcome growth the market for fare stage PSV remains becalmed at a relatively

low volumes and growth in coach registrations over the past six months has been

inconsistent.

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