Solid July keeps sales at record levels

All truck sectors, heavy, medium and light duty, posted gains over July 2021 sales, however, as has been the case all year, van sales were significantly down again in July.

Despite the lower van numbers, total July 2022 sales were good enough to push the month’s deliveries to a new record, with 3494 heavy vehicles sold. This surpassed the previous best July mark of July 2018, when 3,344 trucks and vans were sold.

Sales were comfortably ahead of July last year by 6.0 per cent, which equates to an increase of 198 vehicles for the month.

Total heavy vehicle sales year-to-date are running 5.0 per cent above last year (1165 vehicles) and 4.4 per cent (1,067 Vehicles) above the record year of 2018, at the end of July.

As detailed above, the heavy-duty truck segment was up again in July, continuing a very positive year-long trend, with a total of 1067 trucks delivered, up 4.5 per cent, or 46 trucks, on July 2021. Year-to-date the results are even more encouraging, with heavy sales tracking up 17.2 per cent over those of the same period in 2021.

In terms of actual truck numbers, the sales gap is now 1172 more heavy trucks sold year-to-date than in 2021.

Medium-duty truck sales have been very consistent thus far in 2022, with the month of July being another steady, double-digit percentage increase over the July 2021 result.

A total of 593 medium duty trucks were delivered last month, up a solid 11.0 per cent over July 2021 sales (59 trucks). Year-to-date the picture is slightly stronger when compared to 2021.

In all, 4554 Medium trucks have been delivered to the end of July 2022, that is an 11.9 per cent increase over 2021. That amounts to 483 more Medium trucks sold this year.

Light-duty truck sales have seen solid, but not spectacular in 2022. However sales for July kicked up somewhat, over the trend seen so far this year. Light truck sales were up over those of the corresponding month last year by 14.6% with a total of 1377 light trucks sold in July, that is 175 more light truck sales than in July 2021.

Year-to-date, light duty truck sales are not tracking quite at that rate, though still in the double percentage figures. Sales are up 10.2 per cent over the same period to the end of July last year, that equates to 822 more light trucks sold thus far in 2022.

The light-duty van segment has seen a significant retraction in sales compared to the sales of 2021.

Year-to-date the tally is down over last year by 30.8 per cent. This amounts to 1312 fewer van sales to the end of July 2022 comapred to the same period last year. The fall in sales is predominantly due to supply chain issues in Europe, the primary source market of these vans.

Looking at the month of July 2022 in isolation, van sales were down, but by only by 15.2% (-82 vans), that is about half the year-to date percentage. This may indicate an improving supply chain, however we will have to await the van sales results over the next couple of months to ascertain if this July result is an improving trend, or simply a one month aberration.

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Chief Executive Officer of TIC, the peak industry body for truck manufacturers and importers into Australia, Tony McMullan said: “We saw record sales in the first half of 2022, culminating in a new June 2022 truck sales record. However, July is typically a slow month for truck sales, coming off strong sales that we witness at financial year end every June.

“So, it is very encouraging to see that July 2022 heavy vehicle sales set a new monthly record and have continued the sales growth that we saw in the first half of this year.

“This is a great start to quarter three and the back half of the year.” Mr. McMullan concluded.