The Volkswagen Group’s commercial vehicle operation, Traton Group, has declared it has hit a new record in sales volume in 2023 with the truck comglomerate selling 338,200 for the 12 months to the end of December, up 11 per cent on 2022’s total of 305,500 vehicles
The increase in the Traton’s sales volume was according to the company’s latest statement as a result of a very high order backlog, increasingly stable supply chains, and a higher production volume.
Traton’s truck business contributed to this increase with an 11 per cent growth in sales volume over 2022 with to 281,300 trucks from Traton brands, Scania, MAN and Navistar hitting the World’s roads. Meantime its bus unit sales were up just two per cent on 2022, with 30,300 bushings being delivered. Further bolstering the numbers were those of MAN’s TGE vans, a rebadged version of VW’s Crafter, with 26,600 of the vans sold last year up 23 per cent year-on-year.
Traton said that following very high incoming orders in 2022, the Group recorded a 21 per cent decrease in its incoming orders, down to 264,800 from the 2022 intake of 334,600 orders.
The company said this was a reflection of demand continuing to return to normal after accumulating as a result of factors like the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
At the same time it said that demand was impacted by uncertainty with regard to economic development and by a more difficult financing environment.
Order acceptance was said to be restrictive in North America due to the persistently high order backlog, while incoming orders in South America were impacted by pull-forward effects resulting from a stricter emissions standard coming into force at the beginning of 2023.
The company said that its book-to-bill ratio, or the ratio of incoming orders to unit sales, declined from 1.1 to 0.8, which will allow it to reduce delivery times in 2024 to its customers’ benefit.
Incoming orders of trucks fell by 23 per cent to 210,600 from 2022’s 274,300) trucks, while an eight per cent decrease to 29,800 was recorded in the bus business and the orders for MAN TGE vans were down 13 per cent at 24,400 from 28,000 in 2022.
CEO of the Traton Group, Christian Levin said the4 Group’s brands were able to continue stabilising and increasing production in 2023 and to gradually reduce the high order backlog.
“This allowed us to lift our unit sales by an impressive 11% year-on-year and hit a new record,” Levin said.
“Although supply chains had not completely regained their stability, we managed to deliver vehicles to our customers with shorter lead times,” he said.
“Demand in Europe is continuing to return to normal, and our order books are well filled, with enough orders to last us into the second half of the year,” Levin said.
“This is making me confident that 2024 will be another successful year for Traton and our customers,” he said.
The Group’s best performing brand, Scania saw its sales volume rise by 14 per cent to 96,700 up from the 85,200 in 2022. with truck unit sales were up 14 per cent to 91,700, while buses improved 2 per cent year-on-year to 5,100 last year. As of year-end, Scania’s incoming orders stood at 84,100 an increase of 2 per cent on 2022.
The MAN Truck and Bus unit lifted its total sales by 37 per cent to 116,000 in 2023, with the company saying that unit sales having been strongly impaired by a six-week production stop at some plants in the prior-year period.
The strongest growth was reported in MAN trucks with an increase of 44 per cent to 83,700 last year. Mean time MAN bus unit sales were 19 per cent higher than in 2022 with 5,700 sold last year globally.
Economic uncertainty in the European market saw MAN TGE van orders decrease by 21 per cent year on year, even though its 2023 sales volume was up 23 per cent to 26600 vans.
The Group’s US based subsidiaryNavistar saw its total sales up nine per cent to 88,900 last year with its trucks rising by nine per cent to 75,500, while bus sales were four per cent higher at 13,400 in 2023.
Navistar’s incoming orders decreased by 29 per cnet to 60,900 in 2023 with the company explaining that it was as a result of most of the orders for 2023 having already been commissioned in 2022. Traton said that Navistar remained restricted in its acceptance of new orders for 2024 due to the high order backlog.
