TRT Recently Registered

The recovery in New Zealand’s new truck market
continued in February – with the 160 heavy trucks registered making it the seventh straight month of improvement on the 2010 figures.

The registrations represented a 22% improvement on February last year and pushed the tally for the first two months of 2011 out to 278 – 30% ahead of the opening months of 2010.

The heavy trailer market did even better: With 65 units registered, the February total was up 35% and the January/February tally stood at 120 – a 62% gain on the miserable market for the same period last year.

Industry analyst Robin Yates, whose Marketing Hand consultancy prepares these monthly figures for New Zealand Truck & Driver – based on NZ Transport Agency data – is optimistic that the Christchurch quake disaster won’t stop the market in its tracks.

“The terrible events in Christchurch may well have a dampening effect on short-term sales, but there will be an increased demand for both construction and linehaul trucks as the reconstruction effort gets under way.”
That, he adds, is working on the assumption that the work will be financed largely by insurance…“and not the cancellation of Government projects elsewhere.”