The sales results for the Australian truck industry really showed signed of softening in May with the overall market tally down close to 18 per cent on the same month last year.
The overall truck and heavy van sales result this May totalled 3921, down 852 units on May 2024, reflecting the softening in deliveries as a result of reduced order in the pipeline and increasing supply issues for some brands.
All sectors of the market were down on the May 2024 results with heavy duty down 27.4 per cent or 443 trucks, medium duty off 10.6 per cent or 80 trucks and light duty down 17.1 per cent or 229 sales on the same month last year. Even the van segment was off 9.2 per cent or 100 units one same period last year.
Isuzu enjoyed a strong month with 1135 sales, again making it the number one selling brand, but it was still 11.9 per cent down on the same month last year, when the brand scored 1288 sales.
Isuzu’s overall sales win saw nearest rival, Hino next best with 358 registrations in May, while normal transmission was resumed to some extent with Fuso coming in third out right again after a couple of off months with 321 registrations. Hino was down 24 per cent on its May 24 result while Fuso was about line ball with its result from last year, with 321 registrations last month, just six units off its May 24 result of 327 truck sales.
Kenworth came in fourth overall and as a result also convincingly clinched heavy duty sales supremacy with 280 sales, a long way clear of Swedish rival Volvo with 182 sales, including four medium duty sales. This time last year Volvo was third overall with a total of 348 sales including 339 heavy duty models, which also gave the Swedish brand top spot in the heavy segment. Last month saw a big drop for Volvo however, so much so that Isuzu has cemented a strong second place in heavy duty behind Paccar rival Kenworth.
After five months of truck sales this year, Kenworth leads the heavy duty sector with a very strong 1317 sales in the top sector, well ahead of second place Isuzu with 983 heavy duty sales, while Volvo is now firmly back in third with 930 heavy duty models.
This time last year Volvo led the heavy sector with 1480 sales for the first five months with Kenworth in second with 1302 and Isuzu a distant third with 994 heavy duty sales, illustrating just how quickly prospects can change.
Kenworth sold 280 heavy duty in May compared with Isuzu’s 186 and Volvo’s 178,while behind them Scania was next best with 91 heavy duty sales, then Fuso with 88 and Hino with 61. Behind them Mercedes and DAF both sold 60 heavies each, while Mack with 49 and UD with 44 rounded out the heavy duty top ten.
Medium duty sales saw Isuzu capture number one again with 337 sales in the sector, well ahead of Hino with 231 and Fuso third with a lowly 67 medium duty registrations.
Hyundai was fourth in the sector with nine of its medium duty models, ahead of UD and Iveco both with eight each, then Volvo with four units, Mercedes with three, while MAN with two and DAF with one medium were the only other brands to bother the scorer.
The volume heavy, margin thin light duty segment saw Isuzu sell an incredible 612 sales to take 56.1 per cent of the light duty sector , selling 3.6 times the trucks that second placed Fuso moved for the month. Fuso sold 166 trucks in May to take 15.2 per cent and was the only other brand to sell triple figures.
To give an idea of how dominant Isuzu was in light duty in May, the brand sold more trucks than every other brand combined, Isuzu’s 612 to the 478 sales of all the other brands in total.
Iveco moved 72 light duty Daily based cab chassis trucks while its distant cousin Fiat sold 70 of its Ducato based light trucks and one perennial second placed brand Hino moved just 66 trucks to be way back in a distant fifth.
Renault on 37, Mercedes with 32 and Hyundai with strong tally of 20 light duty models were next with LDV on ten with Foton Mobility and VW both sold just one light duty truck each.
In the van sector Mercedes-Benz again dominated with 365 Sprinter models well ahead of Chinese brand LDV with 238, Ford with 158 Transits and Renault with 121 Master vans.
