There were some predictable results and a few surprises in the latest TIC issued T-Mark truck sales figures for October as the market notched another impressive result on its way to an almost certain new annual record.
October saw total sales of 3,799 new trucks and vans for the month taking the year to date total so far in 2022 to 36,034 and while it wasn’t quite a record October result, it rounded out a new third quarter record of 11,348 sales.
With two months to run the industry is only 5594 units off breaking the annual record of 41,628 trucks set in 2018, and with the monthly average sales running at around 3800 units and all manufacturers reporting full order books, it is likely total sales will go close to topping 43,000 this year. Year to date truck market sales are 5.8 per cent higher than over the same period last year, highlighting the reality that we are on track for a record year.
In terms of sector performance, both the Heavy and Light duty segments were up on the same month last year while the Medium sector posted a small loss along with the Light Duty Van over October last year.
Isuzu got in ahead of TIC and announced that, part way through October, it had already bettered the record annual sales record of 10,175 trucks set in 2021, in fact the Isuzu tally at the end of the month was 10,832, meaning its prediction that it would potentially top 14000 trucks this year is also on track.
Isuzu topped the market, not surprisingly, with 1190 sales, capturing 31.3 per cent market share, to again street all of its opponents.
Hino’s supply woes as a result of its emission and fuel efficiency fraud scandal in Japan, appear to be continuing to affect is sales numbers with the Toyota subsidiary again finishing third behind Fuso for the second month in a row.
Fuso sold 430 units in October, 70 trucks ahead of Hino, and while Fuso is 1071 behind Hino in year to date sales volume, and won’t be caught, there must be some frisson of worry flowing through Hino about a potential long term relegation to third in the market, after years as major challenger and runner up to Isuzu.
Volvo continued its resurgence by narrowly beating arch-rival Kenworth to be fourth in the overall market for October, by a margin of just two trucks across the entire market, but finishing line ball with Kenworth in the prestige Heavy sector, with Volvo selling two medium duty trucks to just pip the Paccar brand.
Volvo’s total was 284 trucks to Kenworth’s 282, however Kenworth leads Volvo on YTD figures by 499 trucks and won’t be beaten by Swedish rival this year but the Paccar management will be on guard and strategising to ensure it maintains its lead over Volvo next year.
Mercedes-Benz was sixth overall in October with 126 sales, two clear of a surprise seventh in the form of UD with 123 sales, with Scania next on 106, Iveco with 101 and DAF rounding out the top ten with a strong result of 79 for the month.
Heavy sales were up five per cent on October 21 with the segment posting 1,379 units, while year-to-date the segment is up 14.9 per cent on October last year, while the YTD sales volume is up 1,549 on the first ten months of 2021.
In Heavy duty, as mentioned the two heaviest heavy hitters tied on 282 heavy duty units each take 20.4 per cent share, while Isuzu had a really strong 176 sales to be third in the sector holding 12.8 per cent share.
Scania’s 106 heavy sales, UD’s 101 and DAF’s 78 were all impressive results while Mercedes cited supply issues in holding its heavy sales to 72 units, while Mack sold 62 heavies to be ahead of Fuso on 58 and Hino on 55, while Freightliner’s 37 was another disappointing result for the brand.
Medium sales for the month were down 6.3 per cent on October 2021 with 570 Medium trucks sold, 38 less than October last year. However, like the heavy sector Mediums are up 8.3 per cent on YTD figures compared with the first ten months of 2021, having seen 6,466 trucks sold during the first ten months of the year so far, up around 498 units on last year.
Isuzu ruled the roost in Medium with 262 sales and a remarkable 46 per cent share of the market. Hino had a small glint of hope with the medium sector, selling 159 units for 27.9 per cent share, well ahead of Fuso’s 105 units and 18.4 per cent of the sector.
UD was a long way back in fourth with just 22 medium sales with Hyundai perhaps marking out potential for bigger things with 11 of its Pavese models finding homes to put it fifth in the sector, ahead of Iveco with five, SEA Electric with three, Volvo with two and DAF with one.
The demand for last mile delivery is clearly fuelling a big uptick in Light Duty sales with the sector up 11.5 per cent YTD on its sales to the end of October 2021. There have been a total of 13,215 small trucks been sold so far this year, 1,360 ahead of last year. For the month of October there were 1,410 trucks delivered in the sector, a rise of 8.2 per cent or 107 trucks on October last year.
Isuzu led the sector with 752 sales with 53.3 per cent share, screaming ahead of Fuso with 267 sales and Hino struggling with 146 units. Fiat had a strong result with 70 of its Ducato based cab chassis models, beating Iveco with just 67 Dailys, while Mercedes sold 50 Sprinter trucks, Renault with 39 Masters and Hyundai with 11 Mightys.
The van sector was down 24.3 per cent for the month compared to October last year with total van sales of 440 units for the month, 141 less than October 2021. Year-to-date van results are down 26.7 per cent with 4,387 vans sold this year, 1,599 down on the result for the first ten months of 2021.
Hino’s woes aside the industry is still booming and even the spectre of higher interest rates won’t prevent a new record by the end of December.
