The truck market in Bulgaria is turning into the growth sector of this market, and Fiat's Iveco trucks and buses division is emerging as the market leader, having claimed 79.1 pct of sales during the early weeks of this year. The information has been recently issued by the Union of the Importers of Automobiles in Bulgaria (UIAB), the body that co-ordinates local market sales.

During January truck dealers sold 81 units, a massive 131 pct up on January 2005, in this Eastern European market which is starting to show signs of strong growth. This early year performance begins to build on 2005 when 1,241 trucks were sold in Bulgaria, up by 53 pct on 2004's total. Fiat Group owned Iveco, which has four dealerships in the country, dominated the market last month with 79.1 pct of all sales. The light truck segment, comprising of vehicles which range from 3.5 to 7.5 tons was the biggest generator of the segment's sales, with 61.5 pct of the market, reported the UIAB.
 

In total of 2,602 new trucks, motorcycles, buses and automobiles were sold in January, up 33.7 pct year-on-year. However, the UIAB data is not comprehensive because it excludes the business of several vehicle traders that are not members of the industry association. January automobile sales were reported by the UIAB at 2,521 units versus 1,904 a year earlier. Peugeot (with 325 sales) are the markets biggest automobile seller, followed by Toyota, GM and Ford. Fiat (who are imported by Auto Italia) sold 103 units, up 4.1 pct, while Alfa Romeo (distributed by Milano Motors) had 10 sales, up 0.4 pct.