More ground made up on Volvo's heavy duty lead as Fuso moves on light trucks
The slight sales momentum gains of recent months for commercial vehicles seem to have eased in August, Truck Industry Council (TIC) data reveals.
Where numbers seemed to be creeping back toward 2017 levels, August data sees 2,616 sales take this year’s tally to 21,955, further away from 3,266/23,008 in August 2017.
While still well ahead of 21,088 units at this time in 2016, that year’s August tally was more than 200 ahead, at 2,818.
Individually, last month spelled some good news for Kenworth in the heavy-duty sector as it retained market share from Volvo, while Fuso’s strong performance in the light-duty sector helped it make up some ground on Hino.
HEAVY DUTY
Heavy duty showed some buoyancy as the only sector up on last month, with 821 sales in August against 782 in July.
That makes it 6,522 for the year, well below 1,083/7,123 in August 2017 but still ahead of 6,111 in 2016, even though the monthly number is slightly down on that year’s 836.
Interestingly, Volvo’s pace at the top of the heavy duty sales looked unassailable just a few months ago.
However, after losing the monthly crown to Kenworth last month it now drops to third on 110 (well below July’s 140), behind Kenworth on 159, which had a decent bump on last month’s 144, and also Isuzu’s 123, up from 103.
While Volvo retains the yearly lead (1,173), Kenworth makes up ground (1,121), and Isuzu consolidates third spot (845).
Behind them, Scania 78/548 and Mercedes-Benz 63/530 sit between Isuzu and the rest of the chasing pack.
TIC highlights ongoing light vehicle sales strength
MEDIUM DUTY
Medium duty slipped back below 500 for the month, sitting on 484 compared to 570 in July.
The yearly figure of 4,319 still sits close to 2017’s 609/4,583, although that year was near identical to 2016’s 633/4,524.
An unremarkable month in terms of individual battles in this sector sees the three main heavy hitters consolidate their positions, with Isuzu (192), Hino (166) and Fuso (87) tightening their grip at the top, with the next best, Iveco and UD, well behind on 11 each.
In fact, the top three now occupy more than 90 per cent of this sector for the year.
LIGHT DUTY
There are signs the recent light-duty gains from stimulus efforts may be abating, with August’s figure of 849 down 140 on July’s 989.
Even August 2017’s numbers were above four figures (1,051), meaning our yearly tally of 7,093 moves further away from that year’s 7,441 and closer to 6,814 in 2016.
But then, even August 2016 (939) had 90 more sales than last month.
While Isuzu (355/2,856) keeps a comfortable lead here, Fuso is the main mover, clawing ahead of Hino for the month (197 vs 172) and wrestling back some market share (1,276/18 per cent vs 1,629/23 per cent) for the year.
Iveco and Fiat posted 35 each for the month, though the former remains comfortably ahead of the latter in fourth for the year (522 vs 311).