The Kiwi heavy truck market is on track to well and truly recover from the huge dip in the market caused by the global financial crisis (GFC).
New heavy truck (over 3500kg) sales were running at about 3600 units a year from 2006 -2008, before the GFC cut sales by two-thirds in 2009.
In that year only 1264 heavy trucks were landed in New Zealand, but the market commenced the slow climb back with 1680 heavy trucks crossing our wharves in 2010.
The improvement continued last year with 2165 new heavy trucks landed here.
Now, there’s further improvement in the market this year with 898 heavy trucks imported in the first four months of 2012.
If this momentum continues, the truck industry can expect a full year tally a little south of 3000 units – almost back to pre-2009 levels.
In another good sign, last month was the biggest month so far this year for new truck arrivals with 265 units – well ahead of the 222 in January, 219 in February and 192 in March.
Used import trucks, although holding only 18.9% of the heavy truck market, have been very consistent this year.
Some 166 have been landed here in 2012 – 41 in January, 40 in February, 42 in March and 43 in April.
This is more in four months than were imported in the whole of 2010 (158) at the height of the GFC.
