The Truck Industry Council believes that the market is still on track to break the all-time industry sales record set in 2007 with sales remaining solid at the three quarter mark of the year in both the Heavy and Light duty truck segments, while Medium truck and Light Van sales were a little softer, but not much.
According to Tony McMullan, the CEO of TIC, it was another solid quarter for the Heavy and Light truck segments, while sales in the Medium Duty truck segment remain strong year-to-date despite slowing a little in quarter three.
“At the three quarter mark of the year van sales are up over the same point in 2017, but not to the same degree as we see in the truck segments,” he said.
“With just three months to go until year end, the industry is still on track hit a new market peak, though with signs that the market is slowing, that may not be the 40,000 plus mark that many were predicting at the halfway point of the year.” Mr McMullan concluded.
Overall the third quarter result saw 10,695 truck and van sales making it the strongest third quarter result ever since truck records began more than 30 years ago, breaking the 2007 quarter three mark by 675 vehicles up 11.1 per cent over the same quarter last year.
Underlining the record setting year is the fact that year-to date the market is tracking up 16.5 per cent or 4,353 vehicles over the first nine months last year with a total of 30,665 heavy vehicles sold so far..
The Heavy Duty truck segment continues to perform well and is now ahead of 2017 results by 25.4 per cent or 2,099 trucks with a healthy tally of 10,361 sold to the end of September.
The segment was up by 411 trucks over quarter three 2017 and for the month of September, sales were up by five per cent or 57 trucks on 2017 with 1,196 Heavy truck delivered for the month.
At the end of September, Medium sales were up by 16.0 per cent or 837 trucks over the last year, while year-to-date Medium Duty stands at 6,086 units 655 mediums sold in September.
Light Duty sales remain solid in 2018 and quarter three saw a new quarter three record for with 3,533 light duty sold up 549 units over last year with the year-to-date tally up by 13.0 per cent or 1,101 trucks on last year while a healthy 1,184 Light duty were delivered in September, up 17.0 per cent or 172 trucks on September 2017.
Light Duty vans were the only segment to struggle with just 471 vans delivered for the month, down 3.3 per cent or 16 vans over September 2017 with 1,619 sales for the months of July to September. This was an increase of 159 vans over last year, particularly bumper sales in August while the year-to-date van tally stands at 4,664 units, up 7.3 per cent or 316 vans on 2017.
