Sales figures by semi-trailer brand for 2021, published by the Associazione Nazionale Filiera Industria Automobilistica (ANFIA), show the predominance of foreign companies in the Italian trailer market.

V Orlandi SpA is an Italian manufacturer known for its various components for connecting tractor units to semi-trailers. As it happens, so is its parent company SAF-Holland SE, which acquired Orlandi in 2018. Perhaps it should come as no surprise, then, that SAF-Holland is currently merging Orlandi more closely with its own business operations, with the aim of combining them into a single business unit for towing systems.

The startling ambition of Evum Motors GmbH is evinced by its name. It is derived from the Latin word aevum which, among other things, means “eternity” – a grandiose claim for a company which is only five years old. But what Evum Motors may lack in experience is made up for by its sheer confidence: confidence, that is, in a unique proposition which might well sidestep and get ahead of the more conventional designs of the commercial vehicle giants.

Benalu SA is a formidable presence in its home territory of France. The specialist manufacturer of aluminium tippers and moving floor semi-trailers claims that it controls 32% of the tipper market in France; a marked contrast to its performance in Italy where it sold just 30 units from its entire portfolio in 2021.

The Pommier Group of Cergy-Pontoise, France is diligently working to expand the range of products that it is well known for – couplings, protection, fixings, locks, and lights for all kinds of truck and trailer bodywork.

Tecnokar Trailers Srl is one of the major players in the Italian trailer market. As of 2021, it is fifth place in the semi-trailer market, with a 7.4% share, down only slightly on the previous year.

Brembo SpA has expanded its offering of brake products for heavy duty applications across the truck, bus, and trailer segments. The firm states that it has introduced 100 new unique part numbers, including 67 new brake pads.

e-Charging company, Enel X, based in Rome, Italy, has announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with Iveco, based in Turin, Italy. As part of the agreement, the two firms will assess the interoperability of Enel X’s charging infrastructure with Iveco Group electric vehicles; they will also evaluate the best ways that Iveco vehicles can support Enel’s transition to a zero-emission vehicle fleet.

The Czech manufacturing plant of Turin, Italy-based Iveco Bus, located in Vysoké Mýto, has produced its 150,000th bus. Located around 150km east of Prague, the plant has been producing vehicles since 1895, previously for historical Czech companies Sodomka and Karosa.

Sales of light commercial vehicles weighing less than or equal to 3,500 kg in Italy were up 14.9% in 2021 on the year before, growing from 159,590 units to 183,320, according to figures collated and provided by ANFIA.

Sales of medium and heavy trucks (weighing more than 3,500kg) in Italy, according to ANFIA, grew by 5% over pre-pandemic levels, increasing from 23,606 in 2019 to 24,776 in 2021.

Sales increased by 10.4% in 2021, from 3,145 units to 3,471, but they remain well short of 2019 sales of 4,211 units (a 17.6% decrease from 2019 to 2021), according to ANFIA.