UK commercial manufacturing output continued its long-running decline in July, with output down by 25% to 6,338 units, compared to 8,454 units in July 2013, according to the latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.
| CV manufacturing | July-13 | July-14 | % Change | YTD-13 | YTD-14 | % Change |
| Total | 8,454 | 6,338 | -25.0% | 57,118 | 43,798 | -23.3% |
| Home | 2,346 | 2,125 | -9.4% | 26,367 | 20,723 | -21.4% |
| Export | 6,108 | 4,213 | -31.0% | 30,751 | 23,075 | -25.0% |
| % export | 72.2% | 66.5% | 53.8% | 52.7% |
The falls reflect structural changes — a.k.a. downsizing and closures — in the UK CV manufacturing sector last year, which have not yet worked their way out of the comparative figures:
Graphs courtesy of SMMT (www.smmt.co.uk)
A comparison with June 2013 suggests that production has been fairly stable in recent months: 6,348 vehicles were produced in June, compared to 6,338 in July.
Sounding ever-so-slightly like a stuck record, SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes said:
“UK commercial vehicle production fell by a quarter over last July, continuing the trend seen over the last year.
With the effects of the 2013 restructuring still evident, as well as the spike in truck registrations towards the end of last year, this was to be expected. The coming months should provide more optimism, however, with European demand showing sustained improvement.”
The decline seems to have bottomed out, based on month-by-month figures, but the long-term decline in CV manufacturing output is pretty scary — down from around 225,000 per year before the financial crisis to less than 100,000, today.