Truck market gains in August

Solid August registrations of light and medium-duty trucks push the market to a year-to-date high

The month of August saw strong light and medium truck sales that have helped push both market segments to year-to-date highs compared to those recorded in 2015.

Coming off a solid but less inspiring month in July, light-duty truck sales rebounded in August to achieve an almost 17 per cent increase over the same month of last year.

Not quite as spectacular were medium-duty sales, which were up more than three per cent over the results posted in August 2015.

The news for heavy-duty trucks and the light-duty van segments was not as bright, with both posting losses compared to the same month last year, down one per cent and almost 13 per cent respectively.

Year to date the total market is ahead of 2015 by 2.8 per cent, or 565 units. The majority of this increase coming from increased light truck sales and a little from increased medium truck sales.

The heavy-duty truck segment was down again in August, continuing an unfortunate year-long trend, with a total of just 836 units delivered. That's down slightly – one per cent or eight trucks – on August 2015. Year to date the result is worse, with heavy sales tracking down 3.4 per cent over those of the same period in 2015.

In terms of actual truck numbers the sales gap is now 216 fewer heavy trucks sold year to date than in 2015. Comparing the tally to the end of August 2014 to 2016, this year's result is down 10.8 per cent, or a substantial 741 fewer trucks sold.

Medium-duty truck sales have been the second strongest segment of the Australian heavy vehicle market in 2016 and August was yet another solid month. A total of 633 trucks were sold, a 3.4 per cent (21 units) increase over August 2015. Strong results for most months of 2016 has seen the medium-duty segment push ahead of 2015 sales by 6.2 per cent (265 trucks) year to date.

Light-duty truck sales have been the star performer in 2016 and August was another strong month, up 16.8 percent (135 trucks) over the corresponding month last year. Some 939 light trucks were delivered in August, bringing the year-to-date sales tally to 6814 for the light-duty truck segment. This is 9.9 per cent, or 615 trucks, up over the same period in 2015.

The light-duty van segment has taken a bit of a knock in 2016, after a couple of boom years in 2014 and 2015. August 2016 was another slow month for light-duty van sales, which were down 12.6 per cent (or 59 vans) over the same month last year.

A total of 410 vans were sold for the month. Year to date the tally continues to lag that of 2015, the gap extending to almost 100 units now. The 3639 van sales to the end of August 2016 are down 2.7 per cent (99 vans) compared with the same period in 2015.

President of TIC, the peak industry body for truck manufacturers and importers into Australia, Phil Taylor, said, "It was pleasing to see that sales in most segments rebounded in August after slow July sales.

"It was a particularly strong month for light truck sales and medium duty fared quite well too. Heavy sales came back a little, but were down on August 2015 and this remains a concern for all TIC members. Van sales took a bit of a hit in August, but year-to-date sales are only a couple of per cent away from the all-time record set last year for this segment."

Tony McMullan, the TIC's Chief Executive Officer, said August sales were in line with the year-long trends seen thus far in 2016.

"It was back to business in August with all segments performing along the trend lines we have seen year to date in 2016. Light trucks are leading the market growth while medium-duty truck deliveries continue to trend up over last year.

"However, light van and heavy-duty truck sales continue to lag the results seen in 2015. Of course I remain concerned about the continuing poor sales at the heavy end of the market, because I am only too aware of the negative effects that an aging heavy truck fleet will have on our country's future road transport productivity, coupled with less than ideal environmental, health and safety outcomes."

Truck market gains in August

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