After a near record year and a big run to the finish line in 2021, the Australian truck market has stumbled into 2022 with a bit of a hangover, thanks to the strong pull through that came from the lunge for the record.
In fact the result for January was very similar to the January after the record was set in 2018, with the two monthly results only differing by 48 units.
Back in January 2019, following the sales record of 41,628 vehicles at the end of 2018, there were 2196 trucks moved. Last month after 2021’s total of 41404, there were 2148 trucks sold.
It seems that for all of those sales late last year the downside was that for just about every truck sold, it meant one less truck available in the severely constrained supply chain. This has seen just about every brand delivering reduced volumes for the month.
However with pent up and continuing demand sales are sure to be buoyant in the months to come, with strong order books out until 2023.
Isuzu had a good month, all things considered and particularly by comparison with some of its key opponents, selling 622 trucks for 29 per cent of the market, selling more trucks than the totals of its two Japanese rivals ,Hino and Fuso combined.
As was evident in the last few months of 2021, Hino is increasingly coming under pressure from third place Fuso as a result of the supply issues, and only finished the month 10 trucks ahead of the Daimler owned rival, the closest the two brands have ever been in this market.
In fact in light duty Fuso beat Hino, in what is a rarity, but an occurrence that has happened a few times over the last few years , underlining the fact that Hino’s supply issues makes it vulnerable to losing its long held number two spot in the market.
Kenworth was fourth overall and again led the Heavy Duty sector with 150 sales for the month. Volvo did not finish second in the sector, that spot was taken by Isuzu with a strong 127 , giving it a gap over Volvo in third with 109 trucks.
All of the fully imported Euro brands suffered with Mercedes Benz, Scania, DAF and MAN all well down on their recent performances.
Mercedes suffered as a result of a shipping issue moving just 48 units in January, after several months of sales of better than double that number. Similarly Scania was affected by supply with 46 sold. T&B News understands that just about every truck Scania can get between now and early 2023 has already been sold and that supply will be a major issue throughout the next 12 months.
DAF moved just 26 trucks in the month after exciting the market with sales of 80 a month or more late last year.
It wasn’t just the Euros who suffered, Freightliner was back to just 26 trucks in January as it too ran short of stock for a variety of issues. Western Star, which will be constrained for the next few months due to several months gap before US production restarts with new models, sold just 18 trucks in January.
Iveco was sixth overall with 80 sales, most of which were Daily light duty models, while the two VGA subsidiary brands, UD and Mack tied for seventh on a total of 58 trucks each.
Isuzu topped medium duty with 210 trucks , exactly 100 ahead of Hino , while Fuso was third with 73 trucks. The next best was Iveco with 10 mediums in January.
Down in light Isuzu had a stellar month with 285 sales ahead of a surging Fuso taking that surprise second spot with 189 units, 20 trucks clear of Hino. Iveco was again in fourth with 51 light duty Dailys.
In Vans Mercedes was the dominant force with 106 sales in January, well ahead of VW with 47 and Renault with 21.
As they say in the classics, one swallow does not a summer make, and while sales were off, you can bet your bottom dollar that all the companies will be doing everything they can to secure more trucks to meet the surging demand across the remainder of 2022.
