The CV sector’s royal effort this year is representing UK manufacturing across the globe
In June we celebrated the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, giving us a reason to be patriotic. We can now see the commercial vehicle sector should also feel patriotic as it more than doubled its year-on-year output last month.
The latest figures released this week for UK commercial vehicle manufacturing shows that production grew 64.4% in June, with 9,549 units leaving factory lines up and down Britain.
In contrast with the economic gloom across the UK in recent months, June production volumes of CVs were the highest since 2015 – and 32.7% above the pre-pandemic five-year average – resulting in the sector’s sixth consecutive month of increased output.
Some 50,596 units of CVs have been built in the UK this year, up 47.4% on 2021 and 16.6% above the pre-pandemic five-year average.
This growth has largely been driven by an increase in demand from overseas markets, many of which were shackled by a spate of lockdowns this time last year.
There has certainly been a revival, with exports of British CVs surging 133.0% year on year in June – now representing nearly six in 10 units. Some 92.5% of exports destined were for the EU, and the vast majority of these went to Germany, Europe’s second largest commercial vehicle market.
Clearly, international trade is essential to the CV industry, thriving on close collaboration and fair trade deals in developed and developing markets across the globe.
Working with these existing markets while forging new and mutually prosperous relations will further boost the strong performance of British commercial vehicle manufacturing well beyond 2022.
We should all be royally proud of the UK’s commercial vehicle sector, but it is crucial that we show this not just with words but action too.
As SMMT has and continues to make clear to stakeholders, the media and the public, action must begin with tackling inflation and energy costs, to ensure the sector continues to show the very best of UK manufacturing.
