Posted on 06 Mar 2023
Sales of heavy-duty trucks in China during February soared by 15% on year, according to a preliminary estimate released by Beijing-headquartered Commercial Vehicle World (CVWorld), a well-recognized market intelligence on China's truck manufacturing sector.
During last month, CVWorld estimates that the country's heavy truck sales totaled 68,000 units, also higher by 50% from January, and if the forecast turns out to be accurate, this means February brought an end to 21 consecutive months of sales being lower on year, Mysteel Global notes.
Accounting partly for the on-year rise was the low base of last year, as last year's Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday fell during February 11-17, while in 2023, it fell during January 21-27, CVWorld said. CNY is traditionally a slack consumption period for heavy trucks, and this year, many customers and dealers started their holidays well before the official start of January 21 and evidently had little interest in buying new heavy trucks.
Besides, the buyers are more confident about business conditions during the year ahead with the increase in economic vitality after the lifting of COVID prevention and containment measures, CVWorld noted. Consequently, they were prepared to invest in new trucks.
In February, China's Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for the manufacturing industry climbed by 2.5 index points on month to reach 52.6, the highest level since May 2012, according to the latest release by China's National Bureau of Statistics.
Moreover, robust demand for heavy vehicles from overseas buyers also contributed to the rise in total sales, CVWorld added.
Sales of heavy trucks in March will likely grow from February, it predicts, as manufacturing industries are seen receiving more orders this month compared with last year, with the accompanying rise in road freight volumes helping to boost the revenues of logistics firms. In addition, many heavy truck manufacturers have received sufficient orders from overseas buyers to ensure that their assembly lines are fully occupied till end-March, just with fulfilling those export orders alone, the MI provider says.
Source:Mysteel Global
