A new report suggests demand for heavy goods trailers in Western Europe was strong at the start of 2015. Registrations of new trailers are forecast to grow by 12.8 per cent in the first half and 4.7 per cent in the second, according to the research conducted by Clear International. Overall the market is expected to be stronger than anticipated six months ago.
The East European trailer market has stalled once again, according to a new analysis produced by Clear International. The report suggests that the instability in Ukraine plus the plummeting oil price has had a “devastating impact” on the outlook for trailer demand in Russia. Nearly 24,000 trailers have been wiped from the demand forecast for the 2015 – 2019 period, with most of that falling in 2015/2016. That is in addition to the reductions made to the forecasts in 2014 following the annexation of Crimea. The latest forecast reductions affect Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
In September Tyres & Accessories published a truck tyre market analysis suggesting there has been a massive shift in UK truck tyre market share distribution in the five years since the last time we did a study of this kind. In short, we found that the market is no longer the three-horse race it was in 2009 when Bridgestone and Michelin were fairly evenly matched ahead of Hankook in third place. Instead it looked like it had become a five-horse race, with Hankook and Goodyear Dunlop duking it out at the top. Of course, we have to be conscious that this all refers to sales volume data (tyre unit sales) as opposed to sales values (and the pound notes tell a wholly different story), however the overall point remains extremely pertinent to understanding what is going in the market.
The West European trailer market saw substantial growth in 2014, with an increase of 14.8 per cent over the previous year. According to new data produced by Clear International, the star performers were the UK and Germany, both of which saw their markets increase by 5,000 units. Other strong performers were Spain, France and the Netherlands where trailer demand was up by more than 2,000 units. In fact only Italy, Norway and Denmark failed to register a double digit percentage increase, the latter two only because they had both seen good increases in previous years.
The instability in both Ukraine and Syria has had a real impact on the outlook for trailer demand, indeed the East European trailer market is said to be flatlining in 2014. According to a new report produced by Clear International, nearly 7,000 trailers have been wiped from the forecast for the 2014/15 period. That is in addition to the reductions made to the last forecast in March this year following the annexation of Crimea. The forecast reductions affect Russia, Ukraine, Estonia and Latvia, plus Turkey which borders Syria.
Demand for heavy goods vehicle trailers is expected to grow 2 per cent during the course of 2013, despite a weak first six months of the year. Analysts from Clear International have issued a new reports saying as much and forecasting the demand for heavy goods trailers in Western Europe to 2017.
The German trailer industry is undergoing a very rapid revival in its fortunes, according to consulting group Clear. Output of trailers has been boosted by three key demand growth factors, says the firm’s latest report on the subject.
Firstly, the German market itself has recovered from the nadir of 2009 in splendid style: sales of trailers will exceed the combined demand of France, the UK and Italy in 2011 as it did in 2010. Secondly, exports of trailers from Germany increased by 90 per cent in 2010 as markets in both East and West Europe, with a very few exceptions, started to recover. Thirdly, stocks of finished trailers which had accumulated as the recession bit, had been large cleaned out, leaving the industry in a very lean condition. This meant that all new orders went straight into increased production.
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