A decline in the rate of growth of China’s economy continued to act as a constraint on commercial vehicle demand in China for the third quarter, according to the most recent China Commercial Vehicle Outlook, jointly published quarterly by ACT and China’s State Information Center (SIC).
The Outlook includes an overview of the China economy and a review and forecast of China’s heavy and medium-duty truck and bus markets, as well as analysis of OEM market shares within China.
The pace of growth of China’s economy slowed in Q3’14 from one year ago, declining to 7.3% from 7.8%. For perspective, full-year 2013 real GDP growth was 7.7%, continuing the decline of the past 4 years: 7.8% in 2012, 9.3% in 2011 and 10.4% in 2010.
“Investments, which drive truck demand, experienced some cooling in Q3,” said Frank Maly, Director, CV Transportation at ACT. “Heavy and medium truck markets will remain subdued in the near-term. However, the renewal of government subsidies supporting alternative energy buses, such as natural gas and electric, will continue to increase the share of these buses going forward.” Domestically, 129,000 heavy trucks and tractors were sold in Q3’14.