Frans Cloete Strong Quotations

The year 2005 was truly memorable for participants in the South African truck market. Sales volumes have consistently edged ahead of the most optimistic initial forecasts, and once the trend of strong growth had been established early in the year, the market consistently delivered near-record monthly performances. As it turned out, the year-on-year growth of 31,7% recorded this year completely eclipsed the 27,5% achievement which had, understandably, excited participants at the end of 2004.

The South African truck market, coming off the back of an outstanding 2005 annual result, has continued to achieve impressive monthly returns in both December and January, notwithstanding the fact that these two months normally deliver the lowest total new vehicle sales volumes of the entire calendar year. The main driver of January's excellent result was a strong surge in HCV segment sales, with this grouping of predominantly distribution trade vehicles now returning to market share levels above 20% for the first time in nearly half a decade.