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.

Iveco Bus Argentina together with its distribution network, Ivecam S.A., has delivered 80 Eurobus buses to the Ministry of National Security of Buenos Aires.

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.

The bus and coach chassis segment maintained a downward trend and decreased 16.3% in the first quarter of 2021, with 845 units exported. Bus and coach exports have been in a downward spiral since 2019 and compared with two years ago the exports have shrunk by almost 60%.

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.

Production of coach output slid by 67% during the first quarter as the market for commuter, tourism and long-distance coach travel dried up.

The Brazilian bus and chassis market fell by 9.0% in the first quarter of 2021 to register 3,331 bus chassis, a trend that has been occurring since the second quarter of 2020.

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.