{"id":9725,"date":"2017-03-27T10:46:03","date_gmt":"2017-03-27T10:46:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/?p=9725"},"modified":"2017-03-27T10:46:03","modified_gmt":"2017-03-27T10:46:03","slug":"uk-cv-production-falls-6-3-in-february-as-domestic-demand-slows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/archives\/9725","title":{"rendered":"UK CV production falls 6.3% in February as domestic demand slows"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>UK production of commercial vehicles (CV) fell by 6.3% to 7,940 units in February, according to the latest figures from the Society of Motor\u00a0Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).<\/p>\n<p>The main reason for the decline was a 30%\u00a0fall in domestic demand, which fell\u00a0to 2,793 units, down from 4,019 units during the same period last year. Export demand for UK-built vans\u00a0remained strong, with manufacturers\u00a0rolling out\u00a015.6% more CVs than during the same period in 2016.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_9726\" style=\"width: 660px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9726\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9726\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/smmt-cv-output-feb17-sm.png\" alt=\"UK CV manufacturing Feb 2017\" width=\"650\" height=\"202\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/smmt-cv-output-feb17-sm.png 650w, https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/smmt-cv-output-feb17-sm-300x93.png 300w, https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/smmt-cv-output-feb17-sm-624x194.png 624w, https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/smmt-cv-output-feb17-sm-50x16.png 50w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-9726\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">UK CV manufacturing Feb 2017 &#8211; source: SMMT<\/p><\/div>\n<p>According to Mike\u00a0Hawes,\u00a0SMMT chief executive, this\u00a0domestic\u00a0slowdown\u00a0is\u00a0to be expected after two years of strong growth:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cFollowing two years of exceptionally strong output, it comes as no surprise to see a slight decline in commercial vehicle manufacturing. Despite this, UK CV production remains broadly stable, with output for export growing for the sixth consecutive month, highlighting the importance of maintaining competitive global trading conditions to this vital sector.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I can\u00a0certainly buy into this argument up to a point.\u00a0As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/archives\/9693\">LCV registration figures for the last five years show<\/a>\u00a0(scroll down for graph), CV operators\u00a0have done a lot of catching up over the last two years. Many of these firms&#8217; vehicles had been allowed to age during\u00a0and after the financial crisis. But this process of renewal and expansion is now largely complete.<\/p>\n<p>Some kind of &#8216;back to normal&#8217; adjustment will be required. As I&#8217;ve discussed before, this could take the form of slowing new sales and\/or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/archives\/9711\">weaker used prices<\/a>.\u00a0To some extent the\u00a0scale of the adjustment will depend on how\u00a0well the UK economy performs as we head towards Brexit over the next couple of years.<\/p>\n<p>Time will tell. But for now at least, it&#8217;s comforting to see that EU\u00a0export demand is helping to keep UK CV production lines busy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UK CV production fell by 6.3% in February, due to a 30% fall in domestic demand. However, export demand rose by 15%, helping to offset some of this weakness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9726,"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\/9725"}],"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=9725"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9727,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9725\/revisions\/9727"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}