Second quarter shows solid sales

Big truck and Van sales down, Medium and Light trucks up at the half way point of the year

The Truck Industry Council’s T-Mark truck market sales database tells us that the second quarter of calendar year 2016 has seen some solid results in a couple of market segments (Medium and Light Duty Trucks), while the other sectors (Light Vans and Heavy Duty Trucks) continue to struggle.

As is seasonally typical with the financial year drawing to a close, June 2016 sales were the best we have seen for any month year-to-date.

In fact, June 2016 sales pushed the second quarter total to 8902 sales, the third-best result in the past 10 years, beaten only by the pre-GFC boom years of 2007 and 2008 where the quarter two tallies were in the high nine thousands. For the month of June 3552 trucks were sold, falling just 166 vehicles short of the all-time month of June sales record of 3718 heavy vehicles set jointly in 2007 and 2009.

As detailed above, the Heavy Duty Truck segment has again struggled in 2016, lagging 2015 results. The only glimmer of hope were the months of March and April where HD sales slightly eclipsed those of last year, while the June 2016 sales result of 1054 Heavies fell short of the same month last year by just 1.6 per cent (-17 trucks).

Looking at the second quarter sales in isolation, the segment was up by five trucks over quarter two 2015, boosted by strong April sales that waned in May and June. Looking at the first half year, results show the real Heavy Duty segment picture with 2016 sales lagging those of 2015 by 2.8 per cent, a short fall of 129 trucks. Only 4511 Heavy Duty trucks have been sold in Australia to the end of June.

The Medium Duty segment has been the real surprise of 2016 and as the first half of the year concludes, Medium truck sales are up 9.0 per cent (276 trucks) over those of 2015. Year-to-date Medium Duty truck sales stand at 3344 units. Most of that growth (248 trucks) has come from very strong second quarter 2016 sales. June was a particularly strong month that saw a total of 805 Medium trucks delivered, up a very healthy 22.5 per cent (148 trucks) on June 2015.

Light Duty (those between 3500 kg and 8000 kg GVM) truck sales have also seen good growth in 2016 and June was another strong month for the small end of the truck market. A healthy 1103 LD trucks were delivered in June, up 5.4 per cent (56 trucks) over June 2015. The 2016 quarter two result was strong for LD trucks with 2841 trucks sold, up 284 units over the second quarter 2015 result. For the half year, Light Duty sales are ahead of the same period in 2015 by 9.7 per cent, or 444 trucks.

The month of June saw Light Duty Vans (GVM between 3500 kg and 8000 kg) struggle with only 590 van sales for the month, down 12.2 per cent (-82 vans) over June 2015. LD Vans posted a total of only 1483 sales for the months of April to June, down 160 vans over the same period in 2015. While the half year tally stands at 2,803 units, trailing 2015 sales by only 1.9 per cent (-54 vans) due to a strong start to 2016 in the first quarter.

President of TIC, the peak industry body for truck manufacturers and importers into Australia, Phil Taylor, commented: “The solid second quarter result builds on the encouraging sales seen in the first part of 2016.

“Again in June we see that it is the Light and Medium truck segments that are fuelling the 2016 growth, while Van sales are close to those seen last year. However the Heavy truck segment still lags last year despite showing some promise in the month of March and more recently April.

“Poor year-on year Heavy Duty sales will lead to an aging of this segment within the Australian fleet and that is not a good long term outcome for truck safety, the environment, nor the road transport sectors ongoing productivity.” Mr Taylor concluded.

TIC Chief Executive Officer, Tony McMullan, noted that while year-to-date sales at the end of June were up over those of 2015, he was concerned that the current political instability may reduce business confidence and that this could continue to lead to ongoing poor Heavy Duty sector sales.

“It is encouraging to see a good result in June and overall year-to date sales for 2016, however as we have seen so far this year, this result is brought about by some very good Light and Medium truck sales, while Heavy truck sales continue to lag those of recent years.”

Mr McMullan continued, “The indecisive federal election result from last Saturday could diminish business confidence and I could see that in turn business may choose to moderate their capital expenditure investments. This would particularly affect Heavy Duty truck sales which of course require substantive capital outlay.”

Australian truck market comment pieces are issued quarterly by the Truck Industry Council (TIC)i, owner and compiler of the official T-Mark truck market sales database.

Second quarter shows solid sales

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