European heavy-truck sales fell 57 percent last month, as the global recession ravaged the region's main markets, eroding demand from freight transporters and construction companies.
Manufacturers sold 8,947 trucks weighing at least 16 metric tons in August, compared with 20,849 a year earlier, the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers Association said in a statement today. It was the sharpest decline in heavy- truck sales, since the market slump began in May 2008.
Daimler AG, Volvo AB and MAN SE, Europe's top three truckmakers, have responded to the global sales decline by scaling back production. Stuttgart, Germany-based Daimler, the world's biggest, has announced plans to cut 5,800 jobs and close four factories in Asia and North America. MAN suspended truck production for 70 days in the first six months of 2009 and has shortened workweeks for the rest of the year.
Total commercial vehicle deliveries, including buses and vans, fell 35 percent in August to 96,697 vehicles in Europe, marking the 16th consecutive monthly decline, the association said.
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