Good signs in January: Lorry sales double

The Romanian car market reached an overall volume of over 5,400 vehicles, up nearly 25% against the similar period of last year, the first rise recorded in three years.
Car sales went up 16% to nearly 4,400 units, with January being the last month when cars could be bought using vouchers as part of the “Rabla” car scrappage scheme in 2010.
Surprisingly, the segment with the strongest rise was the commercial utility vehicles segment, which rose nearly 83% last month, to almost 1,000 units, after last year it fell 27%. This shows the economy is starting to budge, with companies kicking off fleet renewal and expansion programmes. Over 18-tonne lorries used in international transport rose by 130% to around 50 units, while light commercial utility vehicles, of under 3.5 tonnes, rose 90% to over 800 vehicles.
As the economy rebounds, sales of heavy lorries will return to the volume reached in 2006, of nearly 4,400 units, which could mean a doubling of volumes against 2010, according to Stefano Albarosa, head of Cefin, the biggest Iveco dealer on the Romanian market. Michael Schmidt, owner of MHS Truck&Bus, importer of MAN trucks, in turn said in mid last month that the first signals pointed to the market beginning to thaw, with over 200 lorries ordered in January, i.e. almost half the number of lorries delivered in 2010 as a whole.