10 | HGV MARKETPLACE
10 | COVER
Truck sales stymied by production delays and lead delivery times
While new Heavy Commercial Vehicle (HGV) registrations in Ireland saw an increase of 31.5% (2,716) in comparison to 2020 (2,066) and +2.1% on 2019 (2,659), the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) Director General Brian Cooke is looking to see further improvement during 2022: “The difficulties arising from both COVID-19 and Brexit impacted on the supply and demand for vehicles, which made 2021 another challenging year for the Irish motor Industry. Commercial Vehicles sales also saw a significant improvement in 2021, with light commercial vehicles up over 30% on 2020, reflecting the increase in business confidence as the year progressed. The Industry is hopeful that 2022 will see further improvements in business levels.”
FLEETTRANSPORT | FEB - MAR 22
Fleet Transport contacted the senior executive from truck distributors here to get the overall picture and outlook for the business year ahead: Joe Crann, Managing Director at Westward Scania, representing HGV Market leaders Scania is confident that the upward trajectory continues: “As Scania only compete in the 18 tonne GVW + market, our segmentation calculated a market increase of 20%. The market is of course more constrained by supply than demand, and our understanding is that most manufacturers are sold out for the entire year. Much will depend however on the availability of components to complete these orders, but indications are for another strong year, surpassing 2021 by a healthy margin.” Obviously production delays have extended delivery times, are customers prepared to wait? “The component supply situation has been extremely challenging, but most customers seem to have understood our predicament, citing similar problems across all brands, and indeed market segments. Passenger cars, trailers and all sorts of goods have been impacted, and of course very few predicted the rapid growth in demand, hardly dampened at all by high input costs. Many customers
are now placing orders for Q1, 2023, and salesmen are quoting based on a very limited availability as 2023 is also subject to supply constraints. Will this issue have a knock on affect on used truck demand and residual values? “Used Scania trucks have seen even more cast iron residuals than hitherto, and with demand outstripping supply of both new and used this situation is likely to persist for some time. Used supply from the UK has dwindled somewhat, with a higher proportion of older imports being brought in to plug the gap.” Is there a growing interest from operators in alternative fuels and electromobility? The level of inquiries for alternatively fuelled trucks is currently small, but we are engaging with a number of “early adopters” to assess the viability of alternatives for their fleets. As we have so many long-term relationships built up with customers over the past 45 years we are anxious only to offer products that will prove commercially viable for them over the long term.”
