European Heavy-Truck Sales Drop 4.8% as Economic Growth Wanes

European heavy-truck sales fell 4.8 percent last month as the credit crisis and concern that a recession is coming deterred companies from expanding fleets.

Manufacturers sold 28,947 trucks weighing 16 metric tons or more in September compared with 30,403 a year earlier, the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers Association said in a statement today. Nine-month deliveries rose 3.5 percent to 250,580 vehicles.

Truck sales have slowed as the global financial crisis fuels concern among companies that economies are contracting. Sales of all sizes of trucks and buses in Europe fell 8.8 percent last month and registrations are down 3.8 percent for the year. U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown predicted Oct. 22 that Britain will slip into a recession. Italy probably entered a recession in the second half, the International Monetary Fund said Oct. 21.

Heavy-truck sales fell the most in southern and eastern Europe, led by Spain with a 50 percent slide and Italy, the third-largest European market, with an 18 percent decline. Registrations in eastern Europe plunged 28 percent to 3,660 vehicles last month. Among the bigger countries in Europe, only Germany and the U.K. posted gains.

Purchases of vans weighing less than 3.5 tons fell 9.6 percent in September to 172,263. Demand for vehicles exceeding 3.5 tons, including heavy trucks, slipped 6.9 percent to 39,706 deliveries.

Market Outlook Cut

Volvo AB, the world's second-largest truck maker, said Sept. 30 that it will eliminate about 1,400 jobs at factories in Belgium and Sweden as a slowdown in European sales accelerates. The Gothenburg, Sweden-based company today forecast the European market for heavy trucks may be unchanged this year, compared with a previous forecast of 10 percent growth.

MAN AG, Europe's third-largest truck maker after Daimler AG and Volvo, said Oct. 10 that it plans to reduce its workforce and cut production. Paccar Inc., the maker of Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks, is cutting production at its DAF Trucks unit in the Netherlands and is forecasting declining European sales in 2009.

The Iveco truck unit of Fiat SpA, Italy's biggest carmaker, was the manufacturer's only division yesterday to report a decline in third-quarter sales.

Revenue at Iveco fell 6.2 percent to 2.4 billion euros, hurt by a 26 percent drop in deliveries in Europe, while trading profit, or earnings before interest, tax and one-time items, fell 4.7 percent to 181 million euros. Iveco cut production of its best-selling Daily truck model at its Suzzara, Italy, plant by about 10 percent in July. Fiat forecast the European truck market will contract 3 percent this year.

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