RUEIL-MALMAISON (dpa-AFX) - French concessions and construction company Vinci SA (VCISY.PK) Friday revised its forecast for motorway traffic in 2020 citing the impact of the national lockdown following the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The company now anticipates a decrease in motorway traffic of somewhere between 20 and 25 percent, compared to previous view of a 15 percent to 20 percent contraction over the year.
As soon as restrictions are lifted, traffic is expected to return to normative levels quickly, as was the case at the end of the first lockdown in June 2020.
Like many European countries, France again imposed the national lockdown on October 30, which remains in place until December 1 at the earliest.
These new restrictions will have an impact on certain Vinci Group operations over the final months of 2020, in particular on motorway traffic in France.
Traffic on VINCI Autoroutes' interurban networks, which had bounced back close to 2019 levels during the summer, has recorded a 19.9 percent drop over the first ten months of the year to end-October. Light vehicles were 21.7 percent down and heavy vehicles were 8.1 percent down. Robust economic activity enabled resilient traffic of heavy vehicles.
After France went into its second lockdown and the related travel restrictions came into force, traffic fell 48 percent in the week between 2 and 8 November. Light vehicles were down 57 percent and heavy vehicles were down 3 percent.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX
© 2020 AFX News
