Records tumble but not the big one

Best year for the truck industry since the GFC

According to the Truck Industry Council’s T-Mark truck market sales database, Australian truck and heavy van sales for the 2017 calendar year totaled 36,825 units, up a significant 3861 units, or 11.7 per cent, over 2016.

The final tally was the best result for new truck sales since the GFC, but fell shy of the 2007 Australian market peak of 38,131 sales by 1306, or approximately 3.5 per cent.

While a new overall market record was not set last year, a number of long-standing records were broken.

December 2017 saw record monthly sales in both the light duty truck and van segments, with both segments also logging record fourth quarter (October to December) sales. When added to strong performances throughout 2017, the record fourth quarter results saw these two segments break existing sales records for all previous calendar years. It should be noted that all heavy vehicle segments posted gains over 2016 sales results.

Taking a closer look at the results for the fourth quarter 2017, T-Mark results show sales of 10,513 vehicles. This was some 1500 vehicles, or 16.6 per cent, greater than for the last quarter of 2016. Looking at the overall numbers for the month of December 2017 in isolation, the total heavy vehicle market of 3473 units was up 421 vehicles on the 3,061 trucks sold in December 2016, making this past December the second best on record, only eclipsed (just) by the pre-GFC December of 2007 where 3509 heavy vehicles were sold.

Heavy duty

The heavy-duty truck Segment managed to account for sales of 1250 units for the month, up 160 units, or 14.7 per cent, over the December 2016 result. In the fourth quarter of 2017 HD truck sales reached a total of 3739, up 805 trucks, or 27.4 per cent, over October to December 2016.

Overall, 2017 saw much healthier HD truck sales than have been seen for the past decade, in fact 2017 heavy sales of 12,002 were the best recorded since the segment peak of 2007 when 13,342 heavy-duty trucks were delivered, thus bringing to an end five consecutive years of negative growth in this segment.

The 12,002 heavies sold in 2017 was 21.5 per cent up (2120 trucks), over the sales posted for the 12 months of last year. HD trucks have regained the largest slice of the Australian heavy truck and van market, accounting for 32.6 per cent of all heavy vehicles sold in 2017, moving ahead of the LD truck segment at 31.6 per cent share, this despite record breaking light duty truck sales in 2017.

Medium duty

The medium-duty truck segment has seen small but solid growth over the year and December was another positive month. The December 2017 total was 667 units, representing 1.1 per cent growth (seven trucks) over December 2016. The fourth quarter MD segment result of 2064 units is the second best post GFC final quarter for medium trucks, though a significant 36 per cent below the result for the same quarter in the record year of 2007.

The total tally for 2017 which ended with 7312 MD truck sales, eclipsed that of 2016 by 4.1 per cent, or 285 trucks. The 2017 result was 35.7 per cent below the segment peak of 2007 when 9923 medium duty trucks were delivered.

Light duty

As detailed above, the light duty truck segment for the month of December saw record sales with 1057 deliveries for the month, up 18.1 per cent (162 trucks), over December 2016 and bettering the previous best December result, that of 2015, by 72 LD truck deliveries. The fourth quarter total of 3175 unit sales was up on quarter four 2016 by 11.3 per cent (323 units) and a new fourth quarter record, bettering the long standing 2005 mark by 145 trucks.

The year-long sales trend in the light duty truck segment was also strong and set the scene for a record LD truck sales year in 2017. A total of 11,628 “little trucks” were sold last year, breaking the previous best light duty truck sales mark, set back in 2005, by just 5 trucks! Compared to 2016, LD truck sales were up 9.0%, 959 trucks, at the end of 2017.

Vans

The light duty van segment bounced back in 2017 after recording softer sales in 2016, following its record breaking year of 2015. In total 5883 heavy commercial vans were delivered in 2017, up 9.2 per cent (497 sales) over 2016. This was a new record for Australian van sales, eclipsing the 2015 mark of 5515 by 6.6 per cent (368 vans).

December saw stronger than average 2017 sales for the van segment with 499 vehicles delivered, up on December 2016 sales by 19.9 per cent (83 vans). December 2017 sales were also a record, up 13.4 per cent, 59 vans, over the December 2015 segment peak. The 2017 fourth quarter result of 1535 van sales was also a segment record, 183 vans, or 13.5 per cent, better than the previous best fourth quarter of 2016.

President of TIC, the peak industry body for truck manufacturers and importers into Australia, Phil Taylor, said: “It was pleasing to see that the final quarter of 2017 finished as strongly for new truck sales in Australia as the previous three quarters of the year.

“The light duty truck and van segments finished with record breaking performances for the year, the final quarter and for the month of December 2017. While medium truck sales were solid all year and up over the numbers seen in 2016.

“However, it was the stellar growth in the heavy duty segment that I found most pleasing, building on a strong fourth quarter result way back in 2016, the HD segment really kicked on in 2017 to record its second best sales result in history and the best result in the past decade. These are very positive signs heading into the start of 2018, a year in which we may just see a new overall market sales record.” Mr Taylor concluded.

Records tumble but not the big one

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