Commercial vehicle production has been falling steadily in the UK all year, as we’ve pointed out before, but August’s 43.5% fall (compared to August 2013) was substantially larger than the 20% or so we’ve seen in previous months, thanks to the impact of additional factory shutdowns for retooling activity, according the latest production report from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).
“UK commercial vehicle production fell 43.5% in August – traditionally the year’s quietest month – as some plants took additional shutdown to retool for new models,” said Mike Hawes, SMMT Chief Executive. “We expect the recent decline to level off in the next few months as newly introduced models reach full production and the rising demand across the EU takes hold.”
Here’s a full overview of UK CV production in August:
| CV manufacturing | Aug-13 | Aug-14 | % Change | YTD-13 | YTD-14 | % Change |
| Total | 3,772 | 2,130 | -43.5% | 60,890 | 45,928 | -24.6% |
| Home | 1,416 | 1,229 | -13.2% | 27,783 | 21,952 | -21.0% |
| Export | 2,356 | 901 | -61.8% | 33,107 | 23,976 | -27.6% |
| % export | 62.5% | 42.3% | 54.4% | 52.2% |
Data courtesy of SMMT (www.smmt.co.uk)
Does August’s jumbo fall mean that production will finally start to rebound from September? The ramp-up of production of the new Vauxhall Vivaro model (at Luton) should help, but it’s hard to imagine production rising to 2013 levels, let alone those seen as recently as 2012 — as these graphs show:
UK CV output August 2014 (courtesy of SMMT)