With a freight transportation slump and operational costs rising, China's heavy-duty market continued the downward spiral that began last year, according to the recently released China Commercial Vehicle Outlook, which is jointly published quarterly by ACT and SIC, China's State Information Center.


"Continued weakness in freight economy has led to a significant pull-back in China's heavy-duty truck production," says Kenny Vieth, president and senior analyst at ACT. "However, growing discretionary income amongst Chinese is allowing for more travel. This has led to continued strong demand for buses." He added that growth in bus demand will be insufficient to offset the weakness in other segments of the transportation industry, however.

SIC is affiliated with the National Development and Reform Commission of China and is engaged in research on the macro-economy, key industries and information technology.

ACT is a publisher of new and used commercial vehicle industry data, market analysis and forecasting services for the North American market, as well as the U.S. tractor-trailer market and the China CV market.