![\"SMMT](\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/smmt-cv-manu-mar16-sm.jpg\")
Vauxhall’s Luton plant, which builds the Vivaro, continues to be the single largest contributor to UK CV production (image courtesy of SMMT)<\/p><\/div>\n
Total CV output fell by 13% from 9,648 units in March 2015 to 8,398 units\u00a0in\u00a0March this year. The cause of the decline was a slump in UK demand, which fell by 23.7% to 3,868 units.<\/p>\n
Export demand was\u00a0almost unchanged on the same period last year, although\u00a0this\u00a0should be seen in context against\u00a0the exceptional 60%+ surge in export sales seen in March last year.<\/a><\/p>\n Figures courtesy of SMMT (www.smmt.co.uk)<\/p><\/div>\n These figures also need to be seen in the context of the boom in CV\u00a0production<\/a> and the record level of\u00a0new van registrations in 2015<\/a>. Commenting on the figures,\u00a0Mike Hawes, the SMMT’s chief executive, was keen to emphasise that some moderation in volumes this year\u00a0was almost inevitable:<\/p>\n \u201cFollowing the substantial boost to volumes seen in 2015, it is unsurprising that March\u2019s production figures were more subdued. However, exports are driving output, with more than half of all the commercial vehicles made in Britain in 2016 produced for overseas buyers. With continued recovery in Europe, we can be optimistic that this trend will continue.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Although I broadly agree with Mr Hawes’ view, only time will tell whether\u00a0EU countries such as Spain will see quite\u00a0such a\u00a0strong recovery in\u00a0new van registrations as that seen in the UK.<\/p>\n I also note that Mr Hawes chose to gloss over the\u00a0decline in UK demand for UK CVs. This suggests to me that the long overdue replacement cycle has now completed and that\u00a0new registrations may also moderate somewhat<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" UK CV manufacturing output fell by 13% in March relative to the exceptional performance seen in March 2015. Export demand remains strong, however.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[310,1885],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8847"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8847"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8852,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8847\/revisions\/8852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"SMMT](\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/smmt-cv-output-march16.png\")