The Australian truck market can still set an all-time annual record, despite a very slight dip due to supply issues in December.
With a month to run in 2021, the tally to the end of November is just 297 behind the record year of 2018, despite market leader Isuzu achieving another impressive tally for the month.
There were 3650 new trucks sold in Australia in November with Isuzu capturing 27 percent of the market with 1010 sales.
The year to date tally at the end of the month shows 37876 trucks have been sold so far this year, with a number of makers reporting supply issues as the reason for slightly lower sales performances.
Compared with November 2018 last month’s tally was only 72 trucks behind the effort three years ago, this despite Isuzu being up 122 units on the monthly result back then. The November result was also 476 units up on the same month last year and 570 ahed of November 2019.
Isuzu is only 751 trucks behind its 2018 record tally, and given it has bettered that month every month since February this year, at the very least it should achieve a record erven if the total market misses out.
Second placed Hino was behind its 2018 November tally with 501 compared with 552 in 2018, a drop of nine per cent.Third placed Fuso however was up 30 percent on its 2018 result with 450 compared with 345 three years ago. Hino has cited supply as its major limiting factor.
Kenworth had another strong month, not as strong as its stellar performance in October but with 269 it was identical to its September result and also meant that it finished in third overall and well clear at the head of Heavy Duty with 20.4 per cent share of the sector. The good news was that Volvo had a better November after months of poor results on the back of supply and component shortages. The Swede move 199 Heavy Duty for 15.1 per cent of that sector and also sold seven Medium Duty models to bump it over the 200 total for the month.
In total there were Heavy Duty 1366 sales for the month.
Mercedes-Benz had another impressive result finishing sixth overall with total sales of 137, including 104 heavy duty , as its Actros continued to win sales, as well as eight mediums and 25 light duty Sprinter cab chassis trucks.
Iveco was seventh with 122 which included 29 Heavies, just 7 Mediums and a whopping 86 light duty Daily based trucks.
If Paccar’s Heavy dominance with Kenworth wasn’t enough, its DAF brand again had a big monthly result moving a total of 96 trucks, with 93 of them Heavies and the other threein Medium. Not that long ago Volvo Group could claim dominance over Paccar with combines brand sales but the rise of DAF has fortified Paccar and pushed it ahead with a combined tally of 362 Kenworths and DAFs to the 290 Volvos, Macks and UDs for VGA.
Scania continued its strong performance of recent times registering 92 sales, all Heavy Duty models and is likely to exceed 1100 sales for the year which is a great result given the supply issues it faced throughout the year.
Behind those came UD with 86, Mack with 54 and Freightliner with 48.
In Medium Duty there were 688 sales in November. Isuzu was again strongly dominant capturing 46.7 per cent of the market and 321 units for the month, well ahead of Hino with 177 sales and 25.7 per cent share and 141 for Fuso which took 20.5 per cent share.
Light Duty saw 1296 total sales in the sector, with Isuzu taking 39 per cent share and 506 sales, while Hino sold 282 units with 21.8 percent share in the sector, with Fuso close behind with 259 sales and 20 per cent share. Iveco was the next best with 86 sales, while Fiat netted 75 sales in light duty.
Mercedes dominated van sales with 140 Sprinters and a 40 per cent share in the sector well ahead of Fiat with 57 Ducato sales, while Renault sold 54 Masters, Ford with 41 Transits and VW with 36 Masters.
As we said at the start the record is there for the taking, but it will depend on supply not demand.
