Ever Star is shining bright!

Ever Star Industries has started the year with a bang, and the company is anticipating a great 2022.

Ever Star Industries, distributor of Powerstar trucks, Powerstar FT Series trucks, and Shantui construction/mining equipment in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, has kicked off 2022 in spectacular fashion. By all accounts, this positive trend should continue for the rest of the year.

According to Mike Hawkins, senior manager: commercial, Ever Star Industries has not been forced to contend with some of the significant challenges faced by other truck companies. “While the war in Ukraine and the shortage of semiconductors has impacted supply for some truck companies, this has fortunately not affected us, and we are very grateful for this,” he says.

“I am pleased to say that our order book is also looking reasonably good for the months to come,” Hawkins reveals on the subject of extra-heavy commercial vehicle sales, noting that Ever Star had a very strong first quarter.

Customers are buying Ever Star’s products for a number of logical reasons, he believes. “We offer a reliable, robust product at an affordable price. Our servicing and parts pricing are also very reasonable,” he explains. “Furthermore, our VX range of vehicles is sought-after in the second-hand market, and this ensures excellent resale prices.”

Although truck sales faltered last month – medium commercial vehicles (MCVs) were 9,4% down in April, while heavy trucks and buses registered a decline of 4,6% compared to the corresponding month last year – the overall picture is not so gloomy. Take February, for instance. Sales for the medium and heavy truck industry segments reflected a positive performance during the month of February. At 572 and 1 804 units respectively, these segments increased by 40 units (7,5%) for MCVs and 343 vehicles (23,5%) for heavy trucks and buses, compared to February 2021.

Rodney Selesnick, senior head of sales at Ever Star Industries, believes that this increase in sales can be attributed to the pandemic. “I think Covid and the general uncertainty during the past two years caused businesses to consolidate as they looked to ride out the pandemic. Now, they can see the way forward and how life and business will be in the future. They realise that Covid has not meant the end of the world (as we originally thought),” he contends. “We saw very strong parts growth from our side during this period. Now the market feels comfortable to start buying new vehicles again.”

Hawkins concurs, and believes there is cause for cautious optimism. “Current trends seem to suggest that this growth will be ongoing. Of course, we need to be aware that the situation in Europe and a resurgence of Covid in China may change that,” he warns.

Hawkins is expecting a 600+ extra-heavy market in 2022. “Our extra-heavy sales are largely to the construction industry, which does limit our sales potential. We are launching a revised V3 truck tractor towards the middle of the year, which will hopefully aid sales into that sector,” he says. “We feel we have the opportunity to grow our market share in the extra-heavy sector, which we want to achieve through our V3 tractor and other niche products.”