Scania Latin America Ltda of São Bernardo do Campo, SP, has won an order for 200, Scania RH500 and RH540 extra-heavy-duty tractor units from Grupo G10 Ltda of Maringa in the State of Paraná, representing an investment of more than BRA100m (USD17.5m).

DAF Caminhões Brasil Ltda has started production of its latest version of the CF tractor range at its plant in Ponta Grossa, Paraná State, Brazil for both the on- and off-highway markets, as well as a CF rigid truck model, marking its entry into the rigid truck distribution segment in Brazil for the first time.

DAF Caminhões Brasil has launched a new off-road tractor unit in its new CF range, the chassis has been fully reinforced to handle severe off-road applications such as sugarcane and timber operations and offering gross train weights of up to 125 tons.

Iveco América do Sul Ltda at the start of this year announced it was hiring 478 temporary workers for its industrial complex in Sete Lagoas, Minas Gerais to expand commercial vehicle production to meet demand. This is in addition to 272 new employees hired in October last year.

Volvo Trucks Latin America Ltda said it had hired more than 400 temporary employees in January taking its employee numbers to 3,800, slightly more than the 3,700 employed in January 2020, prior to the pandemic.

Volkswagen Caminhões e Ônibus has announced that four of its extra heavy-duty VW Constellation truck models are to be fitted with the new 12-speed V-Tronic ZF Traxon transmission for sale in export markets from April this year.

In the first quarter of 2021, Brazilian manufacturers saw truck exports soar by 91.2% to 5,276 units, up from 2,759 units in the same quarter in 2020.

Truck production in Brazil maintained an upward trend in the first quarter this year, despite the assembly lines being forced to shut down towards the end of March and has continued to the second week of April.

Truck sales in Brazil during the first quarter this year grew by 29.5%, 26,139 units compared with 20,160 units in the same period of 2020.

According to data from the National Association for Sustainable Mobility (ANDEMOS) of Bogotá, the Colombian commercial vehicle market ended the first quarter of 2021 with total sales of 6,856 heavy commercial vehicles.

According to data released by the National Automotive Association of Chile (ANAC) based in Santiago, sales of commercial vehicles in the first quarter of 2021 grew by 30.1% over the same period last year.

Data collated and analysed by ANFIR (National Association of Manufacturers of Road Implements) of São Paulo, reveals that, despite the pandemic, the market for road implements (trailers and truck bodywork) in the first quarter of 2021 finished with substantial growth.