The recent European transport industry has been a bad one. Fuel prices, driver shortages, supply chain turmoil, gas outages... These problems have been deeply buried since the beginning of the epidemic, like a time bomb. With the changes in the world situation such as the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, these problems have become more and more dangerous. It is no exaggeration to say that March 2022 does not have the warmth of spring for the European transport industry, but only an endless winter.
The first and most significant problem is the supply chain problem. As we all know, the global automotive chip industry is not optimistic, and it is difficult to supply enough chips for in-vehicle intelligent systems. For example, the Mercedes-Benz Sprint in the picture above, it was ordered by a Polish driver, and it was not long before the car was picked up. There are stickers on its front windshield that read: Safety features such as the vehicle's blind spot detection system are not currently available. According to the driver, the Mercedes-Benz 4S store did not install the corresponding radar and computer system, but reserved the corresponding position, which can be reinstalled after the supply chain problems eased in the later stage.
In mid-March, Scania's parts logistics company said at a press conference that Scania would stop accepting orders for diesel trucks for up to six months due to supply chain issues. This means that drivers will not be able to order new Scania diesel trucks until mid-September. However, the Scania plant does not stop operating, and will continue to produce trucks to process the backlog of orders. In addition, the order of electric trucks is not affected. Scania said there was a high degree of uncertainty about the purchase price of components used in the truck and long delivery times. Coupled with production and other processes, a truck may wait up to 20 months from ordering to picking up! Due to the Crisis in Ukraine, high oil prices, driver strikes and other factors, it is almost impossible to give an exact price and an exact delivery schedule. As a result, Scania can only choose to stop accepting new orders.
In 2021, Scania's sales results were impressive. Even though Scania experienced two productions in 2021 caused by a shortage of semiconductor supplies, tens of thousands of trucks were delivered. In the European market, Scania's deliveries accounted for 20.3% of the total deliveries of heavy-duty trucks over 16 tonnes. However, the shadow of semiconductor supply shortages lingers. At present, although Scania is still producing trucks, the production capacity has been reduced by more than 30%. Scania hopes to be able to deliver more existing orders and find a solution to the semiconductor shortage by the end of the year.
Other brands continue to operate and accept orders, but all mention to a greater or lesser extent the problem of unstable lead times and potential price movements. A more special example is the Dutch Duff truck. On March 28, the CEO of DUF mentioned in an interview with the Dutch financial magazine Eindhovens Dagblad that DUF's reserve orders are too much and are constantly increasing. Chip shortages, parts shortages, and other issues are seriously plaguing Duff, but through the synergy of the company-wide team, they are confident of growing to deliver more orders. DUF will increase truck production from 220 units per day to more than 240 units per day in order to process the backlog of orders as quickly as possible.
However, it also depends on the model. The current market turmoil is far beyond the reach of truck manufacturers. Due to the shortage of semiconductors, duff's current delivery models basically do not have electronic rearview mirror systems, but use temporary optical rearview mirror systems, and replace them with electronic rearview mirrors after the supply chain problems are alleviated in the later stage. If the orderer insists on choosing an electronic rearview mirror system, the truck will be produced and then parked in the parking lot, waiting for the installation of the electronic rearview mirror.
For example, the two DUF XG tractors delivered to ZANDBERGEN TRANSPORT. The company opted for an electronic rearview mirror and blind-zone camera system, but DUF is currently unable to provide electronic rearview mirrors, so it uses a transitional optical rearview mirror system. However, the corner blind spot camera system was retained and installed normally.
DUF is also in the process of testing a new generation of mid-truck models to replace the original DUF CF series models. According to speculation from many sources, the new model is expected to be named DUF XD, released and put into production in the middle or late of this year. According to DUF's expectations, due to the advanced nature of the model, they will also receive a lot of related orders.
The only person who had the last laugh was daimler trucks. Martin Daum, president of Daimler Trucks Group, said in an interview with ETM Magazine on March 26 that neither the epidemic nor the war in Ukraine will have a negative impact on the development of the truck market. Even very high fuel prices are not in any way. For example, the growing number of customers for trucks and the current demand even exceeds production capacity are indicative of this. "Daimler is expected to deliver between 500,000 and 520,000 trucks worldwide in 2022, an increase of more than 10 percent over 2021. Moreover, this delivery quantity depends only on the capacity of the factory and is not limited by the order. Daimler's orders are too large at the moment, and if you want to order trucks from the new Daimler brand, you may have to wait until 2023. However, the newly delivered models are also more or less like Duff, and some parts for electronic systems are missing, just like the Lingte we mentioned at the beginning
In the interview, he also mentioned sales in the Russian market and the Ukrainian market. As the conflict erupted, Daimler has stopped selling trucks in both countries. However, the impact on the company was modest, with the combined sales of the two markets accounting for only 1% of the total global sales.
As of now, Mann, Volvo, Renault and Iveco have not yet expressed their attitudes. However, according to the actual operation situation, these companies have also been more or less affected. When and what? It remains to be seen. To be sure, the spring of 2022 is not as resurgent as in previous years, and the long night has only just begun. If there is any latest development, Tiga Commercial Vehicle Network will also bring you information as soon as possible. Thank you for reading this article!
Text: Heseaotter