April Truck Sales Leap 41%

This story appears in the May 16 print edition of Transport Topics.

Heavy-duty U.S. truck sales leaped 41.1% in April, compared with the same month in 2010, marking the 16th straight month of expansion, and outpacing the in-dustry’s 35.9% growth for the first four months of this year.

Once again, all Class 8 brands posted gains of more than 10%, with Volvo Trucks North America and Kenworth Trucks more than doubling their sales. Kenworth’s performance helped propel its parent, Paccar Inc., to displace Daimler Trucks North America as the month’s corporate sales leader.

U.S. businesses bought 12,173 Class 8 trucks in April, compared with 8,627 a year ago. The year-to-date increase was to 44,131 vehicles, up from 32,466 last year. On a month-to-month basis, April sales dipped from the 13,010 heavy trucks sold in March, WardsAuto.com said  in its May 11 report.

“Looking at Kenworth in the U.S., our retail sales have increased every month this year. We’re definitely seeing some sustained recovery in the economy,” said Kenworth General Manager Bill Kozek.

His company sold 1,718 big trucks for the month, a 112.1% increase from 810 a year ago. Cumulative sales for the year are up 69.7% to 5,307 units. Kenworth finished fourth among original equipment manufacturers for April.

“Longhaul and [less-than-truckload] fleet sales are hot, but construction is still soft,” said Ron Remp of Wheeling Truck Center in West Virginia and the Volvo line representative for American Truck Dealers. Remp said VTNA took in orders for 690 tractors from LTL carrier FedEx Freight and that fuel economy is the OEM’s major selling strategy now.

With diesel prices above $4 a gallon and not necessarily at a peak, Remp said Volvo talks constantly of aerodynamics, engine performance and transmissions and how they relate to fuel economy.

“That equates to truck sales,” Remp said.

VTNA sales shot up 121.3% to 1,332 units from 602 trucks a year ago. The year-to-date volume is up 90.9% to 5,058 heavy trucks. Volvo took fifth place for the month.

“It is readily apparent that the stage has been set for a long run-up in demand across the medium-duty and heavy-duty truck and commercial trailer segments,” ACT Research Co. said in a May 11 assessment of the industry.

The Columbus, Ind., firm said truck makers are benefiting from “solid fundamentals supporting the up-cycle in the commercial vehicle market. These include improved fleet financial performance, some improvement in credit availability, as well as pent-up demand from long-delayed equipment replacements and upgrades across the entire fleet spectrum.”

Freightliner Trucks has posted strong results for the year so far, but its April growth cooled to 21.2% after hitting 46.8% for March. Monthly sales for Daimler’s U.S. flagship brand grew to 3,348 big trucks from 2,762, keeping it in first place among brand names. Four-month volume rose 41.3% to 15,400 units.

Navistar Inc. finished second for the month, selling 2,894 vehicles, a 14.9% increase from 2,519 in April 2010. The four-month tally is up 5.1% to 9,089 units. Navistar’s monthly and cumulative rates of increase were the lowest of any brand.

“We know we have the most customer-focused products in the industry and we are giving our people firsthand experience to understand not only our products and services but all industry regulations and dynamics affecting their purchase decisions,” James Hebe, Navistar senior vice president for North American sales operations, said at a ride-and-drive presentation near Salt Lake City.

Peterbilt Motors, like Kenworth a Paccar Inc. company, took third place for the month with a 62% increase to 1,792 big trucks from 1,106. Cumulative sales rose 30.8% to 5,304 units.

The Kenworth-Peterbilt combination for Paccar had a 28.8% market share in April, edging out Daimler’s 28.7% total for Freightliner and Western Star.

Western Star sales soared 97.4% for the month to 150 trucks from 76 in April 2010. The niche line’s four-month total is up 107% to 530.

Mack Trucks took sixth place in April, selling 936 heavy trucks, a 39.9% improvement from 669 the year before. Year-to-date volume rose 33.2% to 3,436 vehicles.

Through the year’s first four months, the biggest market share changes have come among four brands, with three of them posting increases.

Volvo has gained 3.3 points to hit 11.5% and Kenworth is up 2.4 points to 12%. Kozek said his target for Kenworth is 15% of U.S. retail sales.

Freightliner extended its lead by 1.3 points to 34.9%. In contrast, Navistar has dropped 6 points of share from a year ago to 20.6%.

Navistar Chairman and CEO Daniel Ustian has said he expects his company to gain back much of that share decline during the second half of 2011.

Kozek said that if a customer orders a tractor in mid-May, he probably won’t get the keys until September, adding that Kenworth’s backlog of unbuilt orders has “expanded significantly.”

A year ago, truck makers were seeing improvement but from a very low level. In contrast, Kozek characterized the present as “pretty good — it’s not like 2006, but it’s pretty good.”