Record start for new truck sales in 2023

Total Australian new truck sales for January 2023 were 2785 units, up a massive 637 vehicles or 29.7 per cent on the first month of 2022, and 538 vehicles, 23.9%, above the previous all-time January sales record set in 2008.

Back in 2008, truck sales continued at record levels until just after the mid-year point when the Australia economy succumbed to the effects of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), after which truck sales slowed considerably.

Truck OEMs, body builders and equipment suppliers alike will be hoping that scenario is not repeated in 2023, as the 2008 GFC downturn led to significant job losses in the manufacturing sector.

The January 2023 result for the Heavy Duty truck segment was also a new record, surpassing the previous best Heavy result, also set back in 2008.

Coming off the record sales final quarter of 2022, it was expected that Heavy truck sales would slow a little coming into in 2023 due to ongoing supply chain issues, however 944 Heavy Duty trucks were sold, beating the January result of last year by a very impressive 206 trucks or 27.9%.

When compared with the previous record pre-GFC January of 2008, when 814 trucks were sold, this 2023 result is up 16.0%, which equates to 130 more trucks for the month of January 2023.

The Medium Duty segment was also up over the 2022 January result, with 445 Medium truck deliveries for the month of January 2023, verses 421 trucks in January 2022, a gain of 5.7%.

This result is 106 trucks short, or just over 19 per cent, of the best-ever January deliveries of 551 Medium trucks achieved in 2008.

However, as TIC has reported previously, the MD segment is a shrinking market, so it is unlikely that we will ever see new Medium truck sales rewriting the record books.

Light Duty trucks set a new sales record for the month of January 2022 and went on to set a new sales record for the Light truck sector by the end of last year.

That growth has continued into 2023 with January Light Duty truck sales setting a new record. A total of 989 new light trucks were sold in January 2023 – up a significant 28.8% over January 2022, the previous high mark for Light trucks.

That equated to 221 more Light Duty sales over the same month last year and as detailed above, that is a new January sales record for the segment.

Last year saw Light Duty Van sales fall well below the previous year’s sales, primarily due to supply and freight issues out of Europe. Van sales did recover somewhat in the final quarter of last year and that resurgence has continued into 2023.

A total of 407 van sales were recorded for the month of January 2023, a gain on January 2022 of 84.2%. That is 186 more Van sales than this time last year.

This seemingly massive increase has more to do with how poor the January 2022 sales result was, rather than January 2023 van sales being spectacularly good. This is highlighted by the fact that these current January sales fell short of the all-time January Van record, set in 2017, when 478 Vans were delivered for the month.

Hence, while January 2023 Van sales were solid, they were down 15 per cent (or by 71 vans) on the start of 2017.

The CEO of Truck Industry Council, Tony McMullan, said: “It is very pleasing to see such a strong start to the year for all segments, with the Heavy and Light truck segments setting new January sales records.

“However, as I generally remark at this time of year, January and even February sales, are subject to fluctuations and some inconsistencies due to the transition of supplying trucks from one year to the next and the summer holiday period. One should not read too much into the January result.

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“We will have a much better indication of how the market is tracking for the year at the end of the first quarter, once January, February and March numbers are in and the market has had a chance to normalise.

“We are also facing ongoing headwinds: supply chains remain fragile at best, inflation is still too high, there are potentially more interest rate rises on the way in 2023 and the Australian and global economies are cooling quickly. However, January truck sales were a record start to the year, and that is always a nice way to begin,” Mr McMullan concluded.