ANPArchive photo of a car showroom
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 07:01
The Dutch car and motorcycle industry has had a good few months. In the second quarter of this year, the sector had a turnover increase of more than 33 percent compared to the same period last year. This has been calculated by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).
This is partly due to the increased sales of electric vehicles, the elimination of overdue orders and price increases. Most of the increase comes from the trade and repair arm of the industry. Turnover there increased by more than 49 percent, the largest increase since 2005.
It is not yet known what share the sale of electric cars has, says CBS economist Marjolijn Jaarsma. This will only be broken down when the statistics office starts looking at the total fleet in the Netherlands.
Importers of new cars are also doing well. They achieved a turnover increase of more than 29 percent in the second quarter.
Yet pessimism among entrepreneurs
Both the rising sales and the repairs at car and motorcycle dealers can be explained, among other things, by the chip shortage, which seems to have been resolved, says Jaarsma. Sales of used cars increased due to a rise in raw material prices. According to Statistics Netherlands, the price of second-hand motorcycles is rising due to a shortage in used cars.
Despite these good results, business confidence in the sector is still lower than at the beginning of the year. Compared to other sectors, entrepreneurs in the car and motorcycle industry are quite pessimistic.
According to Jaarsma, this is because they are asked about the prospects for the coming months. “Then you have to deal with things like sentiment, the recession and how they view the economic climate in the future.”
2023-09-04 05:01:50
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