Heavy truck production in Mexico fell 2.8 percent year-over-year in September to 16,860 units, breaking the positive trend of the past three months. In the first nine months of the year, production has declined five-fold compared to the previous year, according to SteelOrbis' analysis of data from the national statistics office Inegi.
Of the 12 heavy truck manufacturers in Mexico, six increased their production, four decreased their production and two reported zero production.
94.6 percent of total production was concentrated in three companies: Freightliner (owned by Germany's Daimler Group) contributed 49.0 percent, International Truck contributed 35.7 percent and Kenworth, the Mexican subsidiary of Paccar, Inc. contributed 9.9 percent of the total.
The rest of the production was distributed among Mercedes-Benz Buses, Volkswagen Trucks and Buses, Isuzu, Foton, Hino, Volvo Buses and the Mexican company Dina.
The winner was International, its market share in production went from 27.2 percent in September 2023 to 35.7 percent in the ninth month of the current year. The loser was Freightliner, which decreased its market share by 910 basis points to 49.0 percent.
In foreign trade, the volume of exports decreased 12.0 percent, year-over-year, to 12,459 units. So far this year, exports have decreased sixfold.
In the January-September period, 162,096 units were manufactured and 123,857 units were exported, volumes that represented reductions of 3.6 percent and 8.0 percent, respectively, compared to the same period in 2023.