Chinese heavy truck sales continue to fall in November

Gasgoo.com (Shanghai December 11) - Despite an overall rebound in Chinese automobile sales as a whole over the past few months, the country's truck market has yet to show signs of recovery. According to a cvworld.cn report appearing today, a total of 44,500 heavy trucks were sold in November. Although the number represents slight growth of two percent from October, it is still a full 20.6 percent less than last November's reported figure. November marks the sixth consecutive month that Chinese truck sales have failed to exceed 50,000 units.

The vast majority of manufacturers saw their truck sales fall over the month. The top three manufacturers, Dongfeng Commercial Vehicle, Sinotruck and FAW, reported monthly sales of 9,600 trucks, 6,500 trucks and 7,950 trucks, respectively. Those results translate to negative year-on-year sales growth rates of 19.1 percent, one percent and 28.2 percent. They were followed by Foton Auman (6,500 truck sales), Shacman (5,600), Jianghuai (2,000), Beijing Benz (1,500), SAIC Iveco Hongyan (1,500) and Valin (1,002).

A total of 580,400 heavy trucks have been sold from January to November, 29.6 percent less than the amount sold over the first eleven months of 2011. Dongfeng was the best selling truck manufacturer for the eleven month period, having sold a total of 122,300 units. The figure represents negative year-on-year sales growth of 29.7 percent for the manufacturer. It was followed by Sinotruck (134,082 truck sales) and FAW (149,710), whose sales fell 26.7 percent and 35.1 percent, respectively.

Several in the industry doubt that total truck sales this year will exceed the 630,000 mark, failing to meet 2009's total sales figures. How the industry should tackle poor market conditions looks to be one of the key topics of debate at the upcoming International Commercial Vehicle Conference.