Crisis still bites as lorry registration numbers plunge

The economic crisis is still affecting Austrian companies as the number of newly registered lorries dropped in the first quarter of this year.Official figures released today (Mon) show that 5.6 per cent less lorries were registered during the first three months of this year compared to the same period in 2009.The number of registered articulated lorries even plunged farther as a 32.7 per cent year on year decline was reported.The number of newly registered cars meanwhile soared by 18.1 per cent to 75,938.Volkswagen (VW) still dominates the Austrian market as 14.5 per cent of newly registered cars were produced by the German car maker. Financially struggling rival Opel comes in second.VW CFO Hans Dieter Pötsch revealed recently his firm has been spending around 600 million Euros on car parts and other purchases in Austria every year.Pötsch said at an event in Linz that he was optimistic about business this year after an “extraordinarily difficult 2009”. He described the start of 2010 as a “promising” one.