Continued weakness for China heavy truck demand in Q1

July 3, 2012
With a freight transportation slump and operational costs rising, China’s heavy duty market continued the downward spiral that began last year, according to the recently released China Commercial Vehicle Outlook

With a freight transportation slump and operational costs rising, China’s heavy duty market continued the downward spiral that began last year, according to the recently released China Commercial Vehicle Outlook, whichis jointly published quarterly by ACT and SIC, China’s State Information Center. It includes an overview of the China economy and a review and forecast of China’s heavy- and medium-duty truck and bus markets, as well as analysis of OEM market shares within China.

“Continued weakness in freight economy has led to a significant pull-back in China’s heavy-duty truck production,” said Kenny Vieth, president and senior analyst at ACT. “However, growing discretionary income amongst Chinese is allowing for more travel. This has led to continued strong demand for buses.” He added that growth in bus demand will be insufficient to offset the weakness in other segments of the transportation industry, however.

SIC is affiliated with the National Development and Reform Commission of China and is engaged in research on the macro-economy, key industries and information technology.

ACT is the worldwide leading publisher of new and used commercial vehicle (CV) industry data, market analysis and forecasting services for the North American market, as well as the U.S. tractor-trailer market and the China CV market. ACT’s CV services are used by all major North American truck and trailer manufacturers and their suppliers, as well as the banking and investment community.