2010 expected to be a growth year for truck building industry

MANILA, Philippines - Leading truck body builder Centro Manufacturing Corp. said that this year will be a growth year for truck building because of increased economic activity due to the elections.

Centro president Raffy Juan said that “we are encouraged by the strong performance of 2009, specifically in the LCV (light commercial vehicle), light trucks and truck sectors that we cater to.”

“We even foresee that 2010 will provide more opportunities as there is a renewed confidence in the Philippine economy and increased economic activities due in part to the upcoming elections,” Juan added.

Last year, numerous institutions refleeted their passenger cars, company vehicles, service vehicles and trucks in anticipation of an economic upswing. Even government institutions such as the Philippine National Police beefed up their fleet. Industry insiders also noted the shift of customer preference from low-quality second hand commercial vehicles to high quality brand new units.

Centro Corporate Communications manager Bong Cruz says that “it is good to note that both multinational and domestic institutional clients now prefer to avail of long-term savings by investing in brand-new, ISO-standard products. This is in stark contrast with the past few years where companies looked at short-term benefits and bought second hand units which conked out within one year and whose truck bodies either leaked or rusted out right after the rainy season. Of course, the recent Supreme Court ruling banning the importation of used vehicles via the Subic Freeport also helped improve sales of brand-new vehicles.”

The forecast of Centro was backed by the joint industry sales report issued by the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (CAMPI) and the Truck Manufacturers Association (TMA) which showed 2009 sales grew by 6.4 percent from 124,449 units in 2008 to 132,444 units.

Passenger car sales grew by 4.1 percent but it was the commercial vehicle sales that increased by a heftier 7.7 percent.

An analysis of the CV segment would show that although AUV sales was down by 4.5 percent, substantial sales growths were posted by LCV sector at 15.8 percent, light trucks at 13.4 percent and trucks and buses at 17.7 percent.

As a matter of fact, the LCV sector alone with sales of 52,709 units outsold the entire passenger car segment with 46,228 units. CAMPI and TMA both expressed optimism that 2010 will even be better.