Heavy-duty truck sales pickup in May

Sales up compared with April as hopes raise of finishing year on high

 

The heavy-duty segment once again led truck sales growth in Australia, according to the May figures from the Truck Industry Council (TIC).

With 1,014 heavy-duty trucks sold, there was a 25.5 per cent jump in figures compared to May last year.

The medium-duty segment showed a 3.4 per cent increase, with a total of 637 units sold, 21 units more than previous May.

Meanwhile, the light-duty truck market showed 18.9 per cent improvement with 1,071 units sold, 170 units over May 2016.

The new truck market total was up too, with 3,237 units sold – a 14.5 per cent increase from same time last year, as all segments showed positive growth.

TIC says the May result is the second best on record, beaten only by May 2007, the year that holds the all-time record for new truck sales in Australia.

In terms of individual brands, Scania and Mercedes-Benz did particularly well compared with others.

Scania sales figures more than doubled with 98 units compared to 41 units in both April this year and previous May.

Mercedes-Benz figures less than doubled from May last year to reach 153 units, which is 36 units up from April.

With 803 sales, market leader Isuzu stormed past recent slump to sell 159 units more than the previous month and 99 more than previous May.

Hino sales also showed improvement from both previous month and May 2016, with 437 sales, 96 units more than April.

Kenworth figures were stronger than last month, with 194 units sold to the end of May compared with 131 last month.

Volvo sold 38 more units compared to corresponding period in 2016, with 162 sales.

Its medium-duty range come to the party with 11 units sold in May compared to one in the previous month.

Mack (91) and UD Trucks (84) also sold more trucks in May this year compared to previous May.

At 37 units, Freightliner sales figures were not optimistic when compared to same time last year when it traded 59 units, but far better than last month when it sold 25 units.

DAF sales also dropped from 35 units in previous May to 32 units this May, but still an improvement on previous month’s 28.

Numbers for both Hino and Fuso improved marginally to 183 and 95 respectively.

Fuso was two units short of levelling its total for May 2016 with 333 sales, although it was still 22 per cent ahead on month-on-month basis compared to April this year.

In the light-duty segment, Isuzu saw 28 per cent improvement from same time last year, to 422 units sold.

However, its medium-duty sales dropped a touch from previous May – from 268 to 260 in May 2017.

Iveco light-duty figures jumped nearly 70 per cent from last May and over 87 per cent from April, with 90 units sold.

MAN showed marked improvement in the medium-duty section, selling 10 more units this May compared to last.

Send this to a friend