{"id":9670,"date":"2017-02-23T16:46:13","date_gmt":"2017-02-23T16:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/?p=9670"},"modified":"2017-02-23T16:46:13","modified_gmt":"2017-02-23T16:46:13","slug":"export-boost-lifts-uk-cv-manufacturing-by-11-in-january","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/archives\/9670","title":{"rendered":"Export boost lifts UK CV manufacturing by 11% in January"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s been a\u00a0few months since we looked at the state of the UK commercial vehicle manufacturing industry. But the trends\u00a0we saw last year appear to remain in place.<\/p>\n<p>Total commercial vehicle manufacturing in the UK rose by 10.8% to 7,502 units in January compared to the same period last year, according to the latest figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).<\/p>\n<p>This strong growth was down to European buyers,\u00a0who purchased 5,060 new\u00a0vans and trucks during the period, a 45.9% increase on January 2016. Production to meet orders from the UK market fell by 26% to just 2,442 units.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_9671\" style=\"width: 660px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9671\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9671\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/smmt-cv-manu-jan17-1-sm.jpg\" alt=\"SMMT CV manufacturing figures Jan 2017\" width=\"650\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/smmt-cv-manu-jan17-1-sm.jpg 650w, https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/smmt-cv-manu-jan17-1-sm-300x92.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/smmt-cv-manu-jan17-1-sm-624x192.jpg 624w, https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/smmt-cv-manu-jan17-1-sm-50x15.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-9671\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: SMMT<\/p><\/div>\n<p>One reason for this surge in export sales may be that the weaker pound means UK exports are\u00a0cheaper for eurozone buyers. A second reason may be that key markets in Europe are starting to show signs of economic recovery, lagging the recovery we&#8217;ve seen in the UK over the last couple of years.<\/p>\n<p>The shifting pattern of demand between home and export markets in recent years can be seen in this graph:<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_9672\" style=\"width: 660px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9672\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9672\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/smmt-cv-manu-jan17-2-sm.jpg\" alt=\"Chart showing UK CV output broken into export and total demand.\" width=\"650\" height=\"476\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/smmt-cv-manu-jan17-2-sm.jpg 650w, https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/smmt-cv-manu-jan17-2-sm-300x220.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/smmt-cv-manu-jan17-2-sm-624x457.jpg 624w, https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/smmt-cv-manu-jan17-2-sm-50x37.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-9672\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">UK CV output, showing export demand alongside total demand. (Source: SMMT)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The blue effectively represents home demand, which has recovered strongly after hitting a\u00a0low in late 2009. Export demand\u00a0took longer to recover but has been growing steadily since January 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Commenting on January&#8217;s figures,\u00a0Mike Hawes, the SMMT&#8217;s chief executive, said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cCV production got off to a great start last month, following a relatively stable year for the sector. The strong performance was driven by continued overseas demand, with 96% of all exported CVs heading for Europe. For this performance to continue, government must secure the competitive trading conditions that are so vital to the sector\u2019s success.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Clearly Brexit has the potential to be a big issue for the vehicle manufacturing sector. With Vauxhall plants thought to be under threat if French group PSA buys General Motor&#8217;s Opel business, the next couple of years could be a nail-biting time for\u00a0workers in the UK&#8217;s highly-respected automotive sector. Let&#8217;s hope for the best.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UK commercial vehicle manufacturing rose by 10.8% to 7,502 units in January 2017, according to the SMMT. The increase was down to a surge in export demand; production to meet UK demand fell sharply.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9672,"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\/9670"}],"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=9670"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9673,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9670\/revisions\/9673"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}