The Australian truck market has remained buoyant as it passed the third quarter mark of 2016, with Light and Medium Duty Truck segments continuing to excel in what has been a strong industry performance across the year so far.
The third quarter was particularly strong with 8,274 trucks and vans sold making it the strongest third quarter since 2008.
Year-to date the market is up 2.4 per cent or 563 vehicles on the same period last year with 23,951 vehicles sold.
Truck Industry Council president, Phil Taylor, said it was another solid quarter for the light and medium segments but that vans and heavy trucks were less encouraging with both segments continuing to lag last year.
“The continuing poor year-on-year sales in the heavy duty segment will negatively impact truck safety, the environment and productivity of this section of Australia’s truck fleet.” Mr Taylor concluded.
TIC CEO, Tony McMullan said it was encouraging to see a good result for the third quarter despite heavy truck sales slipping.
“The HD segment has seen year-on-year falls since 2012 and trails the quarter three results of that year by 16.2 per cent,” said Mr McMullen.
Heavy duty sales are lagging 2015 results by 3.8 per cent although that only equates to 273 trucks. To the end of September 6,947 Heavy duty trucks were sold.
Heavy duty sales in the third quarter sales were down 142 units over quarter three in 2015 while in the month of September sales lagged the 2015 result by 6.4 per cent or 57 trucks.
It still meant that 836 heavy truck were delivered for the month, the lowest September performance for six years.
The medium duty segment saw sales up 1.1 per cent for the month of September with 629 sales for the month, while third quarter sales were up 5.6 per cent or 272 units over the same quarter last year while year-to-date 5,154 medium duty sales have been logged .
Light duty was again the star performing category with 1003 trucks sold in September a rise of almost 10 per cent on Septmber last year. The third quarter saw 2,798 trucks sold, up 259 units over the third quarter 2015 while year-to-date, light duty sales are up 9.9 per cent or 703 trucks on last year.
Light duty van sales were down with 395 delivered for the month, down 9.2 per cent or 40 vans over September last year. 1,231 light vans were sold in the third quarter, down 85 vans over the same period in 2015. While the year-to-date tally stands at 4,034 units trailing 2015 by 3.3 per cent or 139 units.
