The heavy truck market collapsed by 55%, but it was temporarily saved by the massive purchase of Chinese insulated vans.
The Russian heavy commercial vehicle (HCV) market continues to be under pressure from systemic factors, demonstrating a large-scale drop in demand and unstable sales dynamics. According to industry analysts, in October 2025, sales of heavy trucks decreased by 55% compared to the same period last year. The cumulative decline in the first ten months reached 57%, which confirms the deep and protracted crisis in the segment.
However, an abnormal surge is observed within the general recession — sales in October increased by 41% compared to September, increasing from 3,534 to 4,998 cars. This short-term recovery is not explained by the market recovery, but by a single factor: the large-scale purchase of Sitrak insulated vans, the number of which has reached about 700 units. These machines were supplied by one of the major players in the grocery retail industry, presumably to upgrade or expand its own refrigerated truck fleet.
According to analysts, it was these supplies that provided almost half of the total monthly HCV growth and formed a temporary peak in statistics. Without taking into account this injection effect, the market continues to decline, showing weakness in most key body types.
According to the results of ten months, KAMAZ remains the leader, whose share has grown to 30%, and the drop in sales turned out to be milder — minus 20% against the general market decline. Chinese brands, on the contrary, faced a significant decline: Sitrak sales decreased by 65%, Shacman — by 71%, FAW — by 66%, which led to their noticeable rollback in the market structure. Belarusian MAZ managed to reduce the decline to 37% and increase its share to 7.2%, while maintaining stability and niche demand.
The segment structure shows profound changes: despite a 71% drop, truck tractors occupy 33.8% of the market, dump trucks sank by 65% and decreased to a share of 19.4%. Vans and flatbed trucks retained their positions due to a relatively smaller decrease of minus 30%, increasing their presence to 9.3% and 8.9%, respectively. The least critical subsidence was shown by special equipment — minus 25% and an increase in the share to 28.6%.
The contrast with Europe remains sharp: if the European commercial vehicle market shrank by only 8.2% in the first nine months, the Russian market is showing a much more severe decline, reflecting the pressure of logistical constraints, reduced investment activity and a risky climate for fleet renewal.
