Romanians buy more special trucks and the Resilience Plan will add impetus

The construction trucks segment expanded six times its share in the overall trucks market over the past three years, to nearly one quarter (24.6%) in 2020, according to data quoted by Ziarul Financiar daily. At the same time, the overall market shrank by 31%.

Even so, the construction trucks market nearly quadrupled in absolute terms.

This year, the overall market is expected to boast a double-digit growth rate (+31% under the optimistic scenario), and the outlook, particularly for the special (including construction) trucks segment, looks bright in the light of the big infrastructure projects promised by the Government.

The niche segment of specialised (other than constructions) trucks increased as well, from 8.9% in 2017 to 13.2%.

At the same time, the transport trucks lost ground from 86.7% in 2017 to less than two-third in 2020. The drop in the sales of trucks for (long-distance) transport was also induced by adverse conditions faced by Romanian hauliers on the European market under the Mobility Package.

"The truck market has been challenged in recent years, and during the last year we saw a decrease of almost 30% in terms of truck registration in Romania, many factories closed production. 2021 brings a natural, timid increase of 17% in terms of truck registrations in Romania. Some factories have announced delivery delays. We noticed a very good increase in used trucks sales, and here we have a hub in Austria for used trucks, and we were able to run very good figures in the first quarter. The truck market will grow in 2021," said Claudia Iordache, managing director, MHS Truck & Bus Group.

In 2020, the truck market decreased by almost 34% compared to 2019, to 4,561 units, this being the second consecutive year of decrease. Also, in 2019 the market contracted by 9% compared to 2018 for almost 6,900 trucks. The best year of the last five was 2018, with 7,560 units.

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