Database

Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) — Eugene Shakalida aimed in 2007 to triple the fleet of heavy trucks at a logistics company he co- owns near Moscow. Now, he won’t buy a single one this year.

Shakalida, 40, is trying to avoid job cuts as prices for cargo shipments plummet as much as 40 percent. His company, Trasko, spent a decade growing from a handful of workers and trucks to 320 employees and 90 vehicles, he said in a telephone interview.

Trasko’s reversal of fortunes reflects the demise of the heavy-truck industry as demand runs dry for goods from car parts to household appliances in regions including eastern Europe, which was a main engine of the previous boom. European heavy-truck sales may plunge as much as 40 percent this year, hurting Volvo AB, Scania AB and MAN AG, who together account for 54 percent of that market.

“The current slowdown in industrial activity across the world has few precedents,” said Carl Holmquist, an analyst with Danske Bank in Copenhagen. “Very few  companies can do anything to protect short-term margins.”

European truckmakers’ earnings will fall 60 percent to 80 percent this year, Credit Suisse analyst Arndt Ellinghorst estimates. Volvo and Scania report fourth-quarter earnings this week, while MAN will release results Feb. 19. View full article »

MOSCOW, Jan 29 (Reuters) – Russia’s largest truck maker Kamaz is halting its main assembly line for the third time since the onset of the economic crisis, which has effectively frozen demand for trucks, it said on Thursday.

The suspension will last from Jan. 29 until February 12. In these two weeks the company plans to clear its stockpile of unsold trucks, said Vladimir Samoilov, spokesman for Kamaz, in which Germany’s Daimler took a 10 percent stake last month. Russia’s construction firms and heavy industries, where Kamaz finds most of its customers, have been forced to scale back production and cancel projects amid the global financial crisis.

Kamaz idled its assembly lines for two weeks in November due to the crisis, and again in December for one month. The last suspension, during which the truck maker had also planned to clear its stock of trucks, ended only ten days ago on Jan. 19.

Daimler, seeking access to what it expects to become one of the largest truck markets in Europe, signed a deal to pay $250 million for the 10 percent stake on Dec. 12. The deal calls for a further $50 million to be paid in 2012 if Kamaz meets earnings and sales targets.

Jan. 23 (Bloomberg) — The slump in European heavy-truck sales slowed last month, with deliveries falling 15 percent, about half the drop in November, as Italy and the U.K. defied the economic recession and tighter credit.

Manufacturers sold 16,674 trucks weighing 16 metric tons or more in December, compared with 19,708 a year earlier, the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers Association said in a statement today. Full-year deliveries fell 2.2 percent to 313,765 vehicles. View full article »

German industrial conglomerate MAN AG <MANG.DE> will stop production of trucks at its German plants for 42 days during the first half of the year due to the economic downturn, it said on Monday.

Employee representatives and local authorities had agreed to shorter worker hours at the plants in Munich, Nuremberg and Salzgitter, a MAN spokesman told Reuters.

Around 9,400 employees will be affected by the measures. The spokesman said he could not rule out further short working hours in the second half of the year. MAN had said in December output at its core trucks business could drop 30 percent in 2009 and it would halt truck production for 40 to 50 days.

Shares in MAN reversed gains to trade down 0.4 percent at 33.37 euros by 1447 GMT.  Shares had risen as high as 35.25 euros, following a mandatory bid from Porsche