A strong connection with Germany’s
industrial base helped prop-up Poland’s economy in 2009, and seems
to have provided significant strength to the CEE country’s leasing
sector, too.
Poland’s new leasing business dropped by
around 30 percent in 2009, according to recent statistics from
Polish leasing association, ZPL.
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The drop for the period is less significant
than in all other Eastern European countries – with several in the
Baltic and Southeastern regions seeing spectacular falls of between
65 and 80 percent during last year.
Whereas the Baltic countries in particular
depend on the health of Russia’s economy, Poland enjoys close ties
with Germany instead.
As Poland’s largest trading partner, Germany
took in 26.4 percent of all Poland’s exports in 2009, whereas Italy
and France were second with less than 7 percent each.
The trend is growing, too. In 2008, Germany
bought only 25.1 percent of Polish exports.
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By GlobalDataAccording to Andrzej Kreminski, CEO of EFL,
Poland’s largest lessor, and chairman of the executive committee of
the ZPL, both internal factors and developments in Germany account
for Poland’s performance.
Kreminski said he expected performance in 2010
to be partially dependent upon the strength of the German economy,
as it had been in 2009.
For instance, Poland’s transport industry is
particularly dependent on the strength of trade with Germany, due
to levels of demand for haulage of goods across the border.
One of the most spectacular bankruptcies to
affect Poland last year was that of a large German company which
went under, leaving some 1,500 leased trucks on Polish roads.
Poland’s commercial vehicle leasing business
will need all the help it can get in 2010.
The past 12 months saw it more adversely
affected than other asset markets, with business volumes for the
leasing of HGVs, trailers and tractors all halved compared with
figures from 2008.
