Malaysia CV segment makes strong recovery in Q1
By Will Pulson - 1st June 2021
Malaysia - The Malaysian commercial vehicle market over 2 tons gvw rebounded strongly in the first quarter of 2021, by over 56% to 15,165 units after declining by 22% to 9,697 units in the same period of last year, despite weak domestic economic activity due to the temporary introduction of a second Movement Control Order (MCO) in January in response to a new spike in COVID-19 infections.
Malaysia's economy contracted by 0.5% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2021 after declining by 3.4% in the fourth quarter of 2020. This was better than market expectations of a 2.0% fall and was helped by a sharp rebound in exports - which increased by 31% in March and by almost 12% in the first quarter of the year. Imports also increased strongly, by 13% year-on-year, reflecting particularly strong demand for capital goods.
