The Federal election and the alleged uncertainty many believed it would bring appears to have had little impact on Australian truck sales in June with strong performances for the month and the second quarter, particularly in the light and medium sectors.
June proved the best month of 2016 so far with 3552 trucks sold during the month, only marginally behind the all-time best June result when 3718 sold in both June 2007 and June 2009.
The result for the second quarter was also a strong result with 8902 trucks moved in the three months to the 30th June, the best result for the quarter since 2008.
The heavy-duty segment saw 1,054 sales for the month of June, marginally behind the same month in 2015 when 1071 heavy-duty trucks were sold. That represents a 1.6 per cent fall on June last year, however the second quarter was up marginally on the same period last year with five more trucks sold this year compared with 2015. 4,511 Heavy Duty trucks have been sold in Australia to the end of June.
The real gains were again made in light and medium segments. Medium duty was up a whopping 22.5 per cent for the month with 805 trucks sold, 148 more than the same month last year. Year-to-date there have been 3344 Medium duty sales up 248 trucks on the first half of 2015.
Light Duty sales have also seen growth this year and June saw another good month for the small end of the market.
A total of 1,103 light duty trucks were delivered in June, up 5.4 per cent or 56 trucks over June 2015, while across the second quarter of 2016 sales were up 284 units with 2,841 light trucks sold.
Light Duty sales for the first half are up 9.7 per cent or 444 trucks compared with the first half of 2015.
The month of June saw 590 Light Duty Vans sold (3,500 kg to 8,000 kg GVM) down 12.2 per cent on June 2015.
LD Vans posted a total of only 1,483 sales for the second quarter down 160 vans on the same period last year, while 2,803 units were moved in the first half of the year trailing down just 1.9 percent or 54 vans on the same time in 2015.
President of TIC, Phil Taylor said the solid second quarter result builds on the encouraging sales seen in the first quarter of 2016.
“Again in June we see that it is the Light and Medium truck segments that are fueling the 2016 growth, while Van sales are close to those seen last year,” said Phil Taylor.
TIC Chief Executive Officer, Tony McMullan, said It was encouraging to see a good result in June and overall year-to date sales for 2016,
Clearly the election has had little effect on commercial vehicle sales with the market showing some level of confidence with good sales. It remains to be seen how the second half of the year will pan out.
