The Australian truck market is continuing on its run to an all time record with another bumper month that has seen booming sales, particularly for market leader Isuzu, which has had significant increases in both volume and market share.
The industry as a whole sold 3777 trucks and vans in May and finished with a year to date figure that is almost 200 trucks ahead of where it was at the same time year to date in the previous record year of 2018.
Isuzu returned a remarkable overall sales volume of 1140 trucks in May to take a whopping 30.2 per cent market share, placing the brand an amazing 862 trucks ahead of where it was in May 2018.
Many of the front runners in the market returned strong results, with Hino finishing in second overall, registering 574 trucks, a great result for the number two, but with 15.2 per cent market share it was very close to half exactly half the Isuzu volume and share.
Fuso’s third placing with 407 sales and 10.7 per cent share was also a notable return, while Heavy Duty king, Kenworth was fourth overall and topped the heavy sector, as per usual.
The big K registered 260 trucks, all heavy models, taking 6.9 per cent share, again streeting rival Volvo, which moved 173 trucks overall (including three medium duty models) for 4.6 per cent overall market share.
Mercedes Benz finished May with 135 sales for the month to be sixth overall, however with 58 light duty Sprinter trucks and seven medium duty models, the German brand’s heavy duty performance selling 70 heavies was again slightly sub par, possibly due to supply constraints.
After several months of constrained supply, Scania however, was back on song with a bumper 120 truck haul for the month, all of them in heavy duty.
With Kenworth leading the Heavy sector by a significant 84 units over Volvo, taking 20.4 per cent of the sector. However it wasn’t Volvo in second in the Heavy market, with Isuzu scoring another robust return, selling 176 heavy duty models, 16 ahead of Volvo, and more than double that of the next best Japanese heavy duty performer in UD with 84 sales.
As mentioned Scania’s 120 heavy sales was a strong performance as was the results of both Fuso with 80 of its impressive Shogun heavies and Hino, which continues to lift in the top class with its new 700 Series, selling 77 of them in May.
Behind then came Benz with 70, Mack on 63, Freightliner with 42, both DAF and Iveco with 39 and the two Penske brands, MAN and Western Star both selling 25 heavies in May.
Isuzu ran rampant in May capturing 47.6 per cent of the market with 324 sales in the sector, but Hino with 195 units/ 28.6 per cent share and Fuso with 102 sales and 31.2 per cent share, the three Japanese makers capturing 91.2 per cent of the medium duty sector between them, leaving the crumbs for the other makers. UD with 20 mediums and Iveco with 19 sales were the only other brands to break into double figures. Mercedes captured seven sales, Hyundai a relatively strong five, ahead of DAF with four, Volvo three and Man with two.
Isuzu’s 640 sales led the light duty market taking 48.2 per cent of the sector, more than double that of Hino with 302 sales and 22.7 per cent share, while Fuso was third with 224 and 16.9 per cent share. Its fellow Daimler brand Mercedes was the next best in light duty with 58 Sprinter based trucks as mentioned earlier, finishing ahead of Iveco with 40 Dailys and Renault with 33 Master based light trucks.
Mercedes dominated the van market selling 192 Sprinter vans to top the sector with 38.9 per cent share, 19 units ahead of Renault, which continues to make ground with its Master van. Ford (69), VW (44), Iveco 24 and Fiat (1) mopped up the remaining sales in the van sector.
With the second half of the year beckoning, a new government in power and a massive industry order book in train, a record year is there for the taking.
