Special equipment semi-trailed to Russia – Newspaper Kommersant No. 36 (7481) dated 03/02/2023

The semi-trailer market has adapted to the crisis: the output and sales of Russian factories in 2022 decreased by only 3%. The departure of foreign players allowed them to increase their share in total sales and enter new segments. However, in some areas, for example, in the most complex and expensive refrigerators, demand is recovering more slowly. Carriers are still cautious about local equipment, and its production is limited by the need to import refrigeration units.

In 2022, sales of domestic semi-trailers in the domestic market decreased by 3%, to 14.5 thousand units, Rosspetsmash calculated (combines data from 70% of segment manufacturers). Also, production decreased by 3% (to 15 thousand units), but in monetary terms, on the contrary, it increased by 15% to 49 billion rubles. According to NAPI, the average price of new semi-trailers in the fourth quarter of 2022 amounted to 3.8 million rubles, which is 13% higher than a year earlier.

At the beginning of 2023, production continued to decline – by 4-5%, although sales are growing by 11%, Rosspetsmash preliminary estimates. But not all segments show positive dynamics. Thus, sales of refrigerators in January fell by 28%. In 2022, this entire segment halved to 2.5 thousand units, but mainly due to an almost threefold decrease in sales of imported semi-trailers.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade is talking about a reduction in the market as a whole by 5.7%, output – by 3%. However, they note that in 2022 in the Russian Federation there was a slight increase in the production of trawls, grain carriers, container carriers, bitumen carriers and others (for more details, see the graph). The share of Russian manufacturers of semi-trailers in 2022 increased to 77% against 63% a year earlier.

The entire market of trailers and semi-trailers at the end of 2022 amounted to a little over 27 thousand against 33.7 thousand units a year earlier, says the general director of the Spetsavtoprom association Denis Kudryavtsev. The reduction is mainly due to the cessation of supplies of foreign brands, he specifies, and globally, a decrease in demand was observed in the spring, when leasing rates increased. Mr. Kudryavtsev notes that Russian manufacturers are actively entering new segments. “The generators of demand for semi-trailers now are construction (dump trucks) and transportation (container ships, refrigerators, curtain trucks),” he says. “Moreover, the market for container ships even grew in 2022, despite the departure of foreigners.”

Demand in some segments even exceeds the capacity of enterprises to produce, Denis Kudryavtsev believes: “Someone is expanding, someone is renovating the fleet, but there are not enough imported components – hydraulics, curtain mechanisms and refrigeration units.” In 2023, the market, in his opinion, will remain at the same level, and the share of imports will be reduced to 10% due to the fact that European-made equipment that was available in warehouses or that was abandoned has been sold. Turkish producers remained the main importers.

Dmitry Babansky from SBS Consulting notes that the dynamics of the semi-trailer market reflects the changes in business activity in the past year. For refrigerators, he explains the reduction in the segment by the departure of the main suppliers of refrigeration units – the American Thermo King and Carrier, emphasizing that this is the most difficult element in such equipment.

“We even underestimated the speed of demand recovery, expecting that it would not reach the level of 2021 soon, and this happened in one or two quarters,” says Tonar CEO Denis Krivtsov, adding that the company reached the level of early 2022 in terms of production . Tonar continues its investment program, including by investing in the expansion of production and refrigerators: “Our partner is working to localize refrigeration units, now they are imported from China and through parallel imports.” So far, the production of refrigerators is lower than a year earlier, Mr. Krivtsov specified: “Among the main lines, this is the most complex and expensive trailer, and such investments require caution, so new customers are only testing equipment, but we are positive about the recovery of this market.”

Rosspetsmash notes that along with a decrease in demand amid the crisis in 2022, including due to an increase in the cost of loans and leasing, EU sanctions have limited cargo transportation, and “additional vehicles have been released” on the market. Only in the fourth quarter, new supply chains were developed, and the restoration of the previous volumes of cargo transportation began, they specified.

The key steps for the development of production of semi-trailers in Russia in Rosspetsmash are considered to be the stimulation of demand for the products of Russian manufacturers through “subsidizing and equalizing the conditions of competition with foreign companies.” Since 2023, the barrier to imports, the salvage fee, has already increased by more than six times. So, for new semi-trailers, the fee amounted to 600 thousand rubles. instead of 96 thousand a year earlier.

Olga Nikitina