FRANKFURT, Nov 27 (Reuters) - The number of new commercial vehicles registered in western Europe slipped in the third quarter, with a weak economy expected to continue sapping demand into next year, an industry group said on Wednesday.
Brussels-based auto association ACEA said 487,494 trucks, buses and light commercial vehicles were registered between July and September, a 4.5-percent decrease from the same period last year, but a slower decline than the 5.4-percent drop seen over the first nine months as a whole.
"We do see a slight stabilisation compared with the first quarter, despite the still sluggish outlook for the west European economy," Anne Pouchous, ACEA's manager of statistics and economics, told Reuters.
"But no booming picture is to be expected. Looking at the latest macro-economic indicators, no significant improvement can be expected at least at the beginning of 2003."
Many analysts view truck sales as a more accurate barometer of economic health than car sales as they directly reflect the spending power of the region's industrial base.
The heavy end of the truck market took the steepest tumble, according to the data, with registrations of lorries and buses over 3.5 tonnes slumping 12.2 percent in the third quarter.
Truck manufacturer profits have been hit by a decline in demand this year, although a number of producers have indicated in recent weeks they see the market bottoming out soon.
The world's biggest truck maker, DaimlerChrysler , said it expected profit at its truck unit to beat last year's level in 2002.
Swedish firm Scania said demand in Europe had been firmer than expected in the third quarter and said its fourth-quarter profit would improve, though it added that uncertainty had increased for 2003.
German engineering conglomerate MAN said its commercial vehicle division appeared to have reached a trough, with incoming orders rising 10 percent at the unit in the three months to the end of September.