Australian truck sales have softened in July with total volume off by 793 units or 23 per cent compared with June.
The soft numbers have alarmed some industry experts who believed that the market may have held up a bit more following the finish of the government’s small business tax incentives which ended on 30 June.
All of the major truck manufacturers suffered falls in sales volume with Isuzu continuing to lead the market overall with 666 sales for July, down 13.6 per cent on June’s figure of 771. Hino was second in the overall market with 392 sales for July off 12.5 per cent on June’s sales of 448 while Fuso retained third in the market with 274 sales, an 18.2 per cent fall on its June sales of 335 units.
Kenworth retains leadership of the heavy-duty market with 164 sales for the month, down from 200 sales in June, which represents an 18 per cent drop in the heavy weight’s performance month on month. Volvo sold 132 heavy duty models for the month of July down 8.3 per cent on its June result of 144 sales, while stablemate Mack had a huge 36 per cent drop in sales month on month, registering 73 sales in July compared with 115 in June. Isuzu was fourth in HD sales with 99 trucks in July down by 12 per cent on the 113 registrations for June.
Scania, which had some big deliveries to major mining operations in June, saw its July results drop 46 per cent down from 111 the previous month to just 59 units in the first month of the new financial year.
Freightliner was the only major heavy-duty manufacturer to increase sales month on month scoring a six per cent increase, albeit on the back of selling 50 trucks in June and 53 in July.
Isuzu reigned supreme in light duty although it suffered a whopping 27 per cent decline in sales month on month, registering 399 in June and 291 in July, clearly reflecting the far greater impact on the light duty market of the tax incentives finishing. Hino had a softer landing, off 3.6 per cent or eight units on its June volume of 218 light duty trucks while Fuso saw a 24.3 per cent drop month on month in light duty with 146 sales in July down from June’s 193 sales. The biggest drop in light duty went to fledgling Chinese maker Foton off a whopping 54 per cent dropping from 11 sales in June to just four in July.
Medium Duty saw Isuzu increase its sales month on month registering a 10 per cent increase, up from 250 medium duty trucks in June to a total of 276 in July. By comparison nearest rival Hino was off 22 per cent month on month in July, selling 151 units compared with 195 medium duties in July. Similarly Fuso was off 18.5 per cent selling 88 medium duties in July compared with 108 units in June and UD sold 40 units, a drop of 20 per cent in July compared with its June sales of 50 units.
Iveco dropped a massive 77 per cent in July selling just four medium duty models compared with 18 in June, while DAF was the star performer with a 350 per cent rise in sales up from two units in June to nine units in July.
The real proof will be in how sales perform over the remaining months of 2015 and whether they stabilise and increase or continue to fall.
