Trucks go ahead

From January till May of this year 3597 trucks have been imported to Russia, which is by 33 % more than during the similar period of the last year (2706 units). And the major part of them was bought during the last two months – April (956 units) and May (1136 units). According to the analytics department of «AUTOSTAT» agency, who process customs statistics, eight automobile brands proved to be most popular for import: Hyundai (877 units), MAN (528 units), Volvo (422 units), DAF (383 units), Scania (382 units), Mercedes-Benz (260 units), Iveco (208 units) and Renault (128 units). According to Sergey Udalov, the chief executive of “AUTOSTAT” agency, the growth of import of commercial vehicles is connected, first of all, with the general revival of the Russian economy. At the same time, we shouldn’t forget that in 2009 import of trucks had reduced by 7.5 times and at the current statistics there is an effect of a "low base”. According to Sergey Udalov, in the nearest future we can expect the further revival of import of trucks, but we are still miles away from the volumes of 2008 (83 thousand units). Experts of “AUTOSTAT” agency also notice that in 2010 the import of American trucks Freightliner has practically stopped. For the first five months of the current year only 4 trucks have been imported, while last year's volume for the same period was 119 units. The import of trucks Hino, Isuzu, Kenworth and Mitsubishi has been significantly reduced too.