Last year marked the first time that sales of light-duty trucks topped those of passenger cars in the United States, but it won't be the last. About 51 percent of the new vehicles purchased in this country in 2001 were pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles, vans, minivans and crossover vehicles classified as trucks, up from 49 percent the year before.

The demand for trucks has been growing for quite a few years, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that they are now the most popular vehicles in the United States--good news for domestic suppliers of steel, iron, aluminum, powder metals, zinc, lead, magnesium and certain other metals that are used in greater quantities in trucks than in cars.

If consumer confidence does not rebound this year, if the unemployment rate continues to climb and if automakers decide to slam the brakes on big incentives to customers, passenger cars could retake the lead in 2002. The most popular truck models have bigger profit margins than many cars, and in an uncertain economic climate consumers might gravitate toward the more favorably priced autos. However, it is not likely that cars would stay at the top very long -- most automotive executives and market analysts think trucks will do better in the market through most of this decade. Some, in fact, are predicting that the share of the market claimed by light-duty trucks will increase three or four percentage points by 2005.

Trucks have been in strong enough demand to push the weight of the average family vehicle built in North America up to an estimated 3,309 pounds in 2001 from 3,171 pounds in 1994--a 138-pound gain in seven years. There were several factors behind the weight gain, but the principal reason was the growing market for trucks. Americans like big vehicles, and there is no evidence indicating that trend will change. At some point, SUVs, pickup trucks and vans could actually stop gaining weight--and might even lose a little--to meet tougher federal fuel economy and emissions standards and combat unpredictable fuel prices. However, there is nothing in anyone's crystal ball that says the popularity of trucks will be leveling off in the foreseeable future.