Global demand for trucks started to weaken in the second half of 2019 and this trend is set to continue in 2020 and 2021, stated Zita Zigan, director of global commercial vehicle forecasting at LMC Automotive Ltd.

Competition in the Philippine light truck and bus market has intensified significantly in recent months with the launch of the Isuzu Traviz and the return of the Mitsubishi L300 at the end of September.

“The likelihood of a recession in 2020 is 30%,” stated Ben May, director, Global Macro Research at Oxford economics speaking in London last month at the LMC Automotive Global Truck forecasting day.

The Indian commercial vehicle industry has come to be dominated by a few traditional manufacturers after decades of relative isolation, and it is this that has been the driving factor for them to focus on building low cost technological products best suited to the demands of the Indian marketplace.

In six months’ time,  Hendrickson International plans to start trailer axle and suspension production (April 2020) at a brand new plant in Navarre according to Gary Gerstenslager, president and CEO of Hendrickson speaking at the NACV Show in Atlanta last month.

Christer Johansson, senior vice president, investor relations at the Volvo Group at the NACV Show in Atlanta last month, confirmed what other industry experts were saying about the Class 8 truck market in 2020, that the market to ‘normalise’ at 240,000/250,000 units, down by around 100,000 units from what is expected to be the second highest Class8 truck market ever in 2019 of 340,000 units.

“The market bought in nine months what was sold throughout 2018,” said Luiz Carlos de Moraes, president of ANFAVEA, the National Association of Automotive Vehicle Manufacturers based in São Paulo.

Claiming that almost all buses in Astana, Kazakhstan’s capital, already have Voith transmissions, Anton Khapugin, Voith regional sales director said at Busworld Central Asia in Almaty at the end of June the potential for sales growth in the region for its DIWA transmissions was huge.

Scania do Brasil Ltda has said it is forecasting continued market growth across all industrial areas in which it participates (trucks, buses, services and industrial, marine and power generation engines) in 2019.