BRUSSELS, Dec 10 (Reuters) - The head of Daimler Trucks offered a bleak outlook for the truck industry on Wednesday, saying order intake had almost come to a halt with no short-term rebound in sight.
"We are preparing for two scenarios: either a slow recovery beginning in late 2009 or a deep recession with a recovery in 2010 at the latest," Andreas Renschler, head of the world's largest commercial vehicles maker said in a speech delivered at an event in Brussels.
The truck industry is a bellwether for the economy, reflecting changes in international change, with commercial vehicles hauling some 73 percent of all inland freight transported in the European Union.
"Order intake in our industry has almost come to a standstill as transport demand has decreased by 30 percent. In addition, banks are very reluctant to finance those customers who are still willing to buy trucks," he added.
"Overall the trucks sector is very strong, but we are hit by factors beyond our control," Renschling said.
At a separate news conference, Leif Oestling, Chief Executive of Sweden's Scania AB warned of the risks the economic crisis poses to suppliers.
"There is a definite risk. For every employee we have in our own manufacturing systems, we have a multiple effect of 4 or 5. If we cut 2,000 jobs, the effect in the supply chain is 7, 8 or even 9,000 people," Oestling said.
Scania, majority-controlled by Germany's Volkswagen and Europe's fifth-largest manufacturer of heavy-duty trucks, said last week it plans to halt its truck production in Europe for a month from mid-December.
The truck maker, which has plants in Sweden, the Netherlands and France, has been hit by a sharp fall in demand for commercial vehicles in recent months. Scania said it would close its European factories between Dec. 22 and Jan. 19.
Sweden's other truck manufacturer, Volvo, has also announced output cuts in the fourth quarter after order bookings fell substantially.
Almost 2.6 million commercial vehicles are manufactured in the European Union every year, generating a turnover of nearly 70 billion euros ($90.53 billion). (Reporting by Antonia van de Velde; editing by Elaine Hardcastle)