The van and truck market declined by 13.7% in April with 18,623 registrations.

Despite Van registrations being down 19.8% to 76,196 units in April, truck registrations maintained a strong performance and were up 17.7% at 4,115 in the month, rolling year up 23.7% to 46,425.

“The relative strength of the 2011 van market continued to dent 2012 performance with the ‘up to 3.5t’ market dropping 19.8% in the month,” said Paul Everitt, SMMT chief executive. “Trucks remained strong, up 27.4% for the year-to-date, continuing the steady recovery seen throughout last year. Last month’s CV Show saw the launch of a host of new sophisticated and efficient vehicles that will be important to the sector’s performance through the rest of 2012 and beyond.”