The truck sales boom shows no sign of abating , after another record month in May that puts the industry’s year to date tally almost 2500 trucks ahead of where it was this time last year in what was already a record breaking year.
The May tally saw 4271 trucks and heavy vans registered in Australia for the month, despite ongoing supply issues and the ongoing spectre of rising interest rates with 18341 commercials sold across the first five months of the year, compared with 15900 up to the end of May last year, a result that puts the market up 15.35 per cent on last year’s tally
The gains were seen across all sectors of the market with Heavy Duty up 20.17 per cent month on month compared with last year , medium duty up about half a percent, light duty rising 16 per cent on last May’s results and Vans up around 3.5 per cent.
Isuzu led the pack with another outstanding sales result, registering a total of 1233 trucks in May for 28.9 per cent of the market, to lead perennial runner up Hino by 665 units. Hino’s 593 sales gave it 13.3 per cent of the market while Fuso is snapping at its heals with 458 sales and 10.7 per cent share.
Volvo again outpointed Kenworth to be fourth overall and to share the lead in the coveted heavy duty sector again in May. Volvo sold 308 trucks overall in May to take 7.2 per cent of the market, line ball with its Paccar rival Kenowrth. which scored 307 sales. All but one of Volvo’s sales were in heavy, but all of Kenny’s sales were in the heavy sector resulting in a tie.
Scania recorded what is believed to be its best ever monthly sales performance in May with 159 sales, all of them heavy, to be sixth overall, outstripping German rival Mercedes by four trucks overall, but only 66 of the Benz’s were heavy duty.
Next best was Fiat which had a bumper month with its Ducati to sell 97 units to be seventh ahead of a gaggle of other brands in the nineties and eighties, including UD with 93, Iveco 92 , Mack 89 and DAF 87.
As mentioned in Heavies it was a line ball result with Volvo and Kenworth tied for sector honours each with 307 units and 20.1 per cent share, while Isuz was third with 212 heavies and 13.8 per cent share, while Scania’s bumper result of 159 placed it fourth in the sector, we’ll clear of next best, Mack with 89. Behind that UD and DAF both sold 85 heavies each, ahead of Hino with 68, Mercedes 66 , Fuso with 60 and Freightliner with 48.
It was the same old story in medium duty with Isuzu way out in front taking 53.1 per cent of the sector with 363 sales more than double Hino’s tally of 178 in second. Hino’s tally gave it 26 per cent sector share with Fuso registering 116 trucks for 17 per cent share in third.
The three leading Japanese brands had the sector pretty much to themselves, with no other brand getting into double figures in the sector. UD’s right units, Mercedes with six, Iveco’s three, DAF’s two and Volvo’s one unit only served to empathise how dominant the top three were. Hyundai and SEA Electric both failed to bother the scorer in medium Light duty saw Isuzu on top with 658 sales and 42.6 per cent share to Hino’s 322 light duty sales and 20.8 per cent of the sector. Again Fuso was snapping at the heals of Hino, scoring 282 sales in the sector and 18.3 per cent share. Behind them Fiat started with its 97 Ducato light truck sales, bettering Euro rival Mercedes with 83 and Iveco with 68, while Hyundai registered 22 Mightys.
Mercedes dominated van sales once more within 240 regos and 47.1 per cent share of the sector, well clear of VW with 99, Renault with 62, Iveco with 41, Fiat 39 and Ford with 29.
The question around the industry is how long can the boom continue?
If the statements from market leader Isuzu and rival Hino at the Brisbane Show are to be believed, then with order books fill until we’ll into 2024,it’s not about to downturn any time soon.
