Volvo enjoys record pace in truck market

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Volvo Trucks North America president Peter Voorhoeve.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Volvo Trucks North America president Peter Voorhoeve says truck sales continue to ride a “very, very good wave”, and projects North American Class 8 sales could push marginally above 300,000 units this year.

“The strength will continue in 2019,” he added in a briefing to industry journalists, setting projections at 310,000 trucks.

Between 1990 and 2017, annual sales averaged 226,445 trucks. “I think that will continue to go upwards,” he said.

Current order boards would reflect a demand for as many as 500,000 units, although those numbers are not expected to translate into actual sales volumes.

There are also limits to the number of trucks that can be built, in part because of the availability of related components. “We’ve had our supply chain challenges,” Voorhoeve said, when Today’s Trucking asked about challenges also faced by other OEMs.

“Everyone has supply chain challenges, and it’s not just one thing,” added Magnus Koeck, vice president – marketing and brand management.

Still, Volvo Trucks set global sales records in the third quarter of this year when compared to the same period in 2017. Order intakes were up 44%, new truck deliveries surged 17%, spare parts sales were up 21%, and net sales were up 25%.

Volvo has also been improving its market share across the world in the midst of this hot market. As of August, its market share reached 16.2% in Europe, 20.7% in Brazil, 17.1% in South Africa, 15.3% in Australia, and 10.1% in North America.

“Canada is just a really good story,” Voorhoeve said. Last year’s Canadian market share as of August was at 10.2%. That has jumped to 13.3% for the same period this year. While its share of the NAFTA market reached 10.3%, up from the 9% seen as of last August, Mexico remains a weak link. In our southernmost NAFTA jurisdiction, Volvo’s market share is just 1.9%.

Much of Volvo’s growth in market share can be credited to the recent launches of the VNL and VNR tractors, which have collected 63,400 orders as of Nov. 30.

 

 

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John G. Smith is Newcom Media's vice-president - editorial, and the editorial director of its trucking publications -- including Today's Trucking, trucknews.com, and Transport Routier. The award-winning journalist has covered the trucking industry since 1995.


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