The average values of used LCV’s at auction across the board fell by just £33 from £4,322 to £4,289 between May and June, according to the National Association of Motor Auctions (NAMA). 

Total sales fell by 19% from 7,722 to 6,255 units. 

The increase in the average number of days in stock was almost certainly attributable to the spike in volumes seen in May and the traditional summer slowdown in market activity over the second half of the month, suggests NAMA.

Over the past 12 months, fluctuations in mileages have proven to be increasingly difficult to anticipate.

This trend might hopefully be reversed at some point in 2014, yet with few commentators expecting sales of new LCVs to return to their previous high point, it is unlikely that average mileages will fall back significantly for a considerable amount of time.

For a second month there was a decrease in price for all years, which is partly explained by a further increase in average age with dealers commenting over past couple of months that they are experiencing more problems when retailing high mileage used stock.

Accordingly, it is to be expected that as long as big volumes of these higher mileage vans are being offered that prices will continue to come under downward pressure.

With an increase of just 23 nearly new vans being offered across auction halls in June, it was encouraging to see sizeable and consistent volume reductions across all other age bands.

Alex Wright, chairman of NAMA Commercial Vehicle Group, said: “Junes report again highlighted underlying strength within the marketplace with encouraging data on conversion rates, the number of entries needed to achieve a sale and the average age of an LCV lot which combined to deliver a sound performance across the UK’s auction scene.

“Now that we are halfway through 2013, the positives seen across the marketplace greatly outweigh any negatives.

“With a flexible approach being adopted by both vendors and trade buyers, supply and demand has broadly been kept in balance.

“Going forward, the outlook for July is looking set to be something of a patchy month as a good number of auction regulars take a well-deserved holiday.

“However, amongst this there will be those days when the market is buoyant with each lot attracting strong bids. It will not be until the second half of August that we can expect to see things returning to their normal rhythm and not until early September when we can see the market to lift.”

 

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