February Truck Sales Surge 30%

This story appears in the March 21 print edition of Transport Topics.

U.S. Class 8 retail truck sales jumped 30.8% in February for the 14th monthly gain in a row, WardsAuto.com reported last week. It was the largest gain of the expansion.

While the number of trucks sold last month — 9,712 vehicles, compared with 7,427 sold in February 2010 — was low by historical standards, manufacturers and analysts said they expect sales to take off in the near future.

Class 8 sales so far this year have totaled 18,948, a 27.9% increase over the first two months of last year.

Six of seven original equipment manufacturers reported monthly volume gains. The exception was Navistar Inc., which logged a 23.4% decrease.

Continuing expansion by the Freightliner Trucks unit of Daimler Trucks North America gave it a 40.2% market share for the month. It sold 3,900 big trucks, soaring 56.9% above last year’s total of 2,485.

“Our Freightliner Class 8 sales activity is well distributed across a variety of customer segments, including truckload, less-than-truckload and heavy-duty vocational applications,” said David Hames, a marketing and strategy executive at Freightliner parent DTNA.

Hames said Daimler anticipates continuing sales growth.

“We are ramping up production and hiring in our manufacturing plants in response to rising order activity. We are optimistic that today’s strong sales performance will continue,” he said via e-mail.

Navistar sold 1,494 of its International tractors, compared with 1,950 in February 2010, holding onto its second place market share. Despite the decline, Daniel Ustian, Navistar chairman and chief executive officer, told stock analysts March 9 that Navistar should see bigger volumes because he expects industry sales to grow and his company to gain market share this year.

Navistar defines its domestic market as U.S. and Canadian Class 6-8 trucks and buses. Ustian estimated it would rise to 260,000 units in the 12 months ending Oct. 31, compared with 191,300 last year.

He also said the company’s market share should rise past 25% from about 19%, especially after the introduction of its new 15-liter engine later this month.

Based on its survey of new truck orders, ACT Research Co. reaffirmed its forecast of 240,000 to 250,000 heavy-duty North American trucks produced this year.

“There’s a good flow of orders and the backlog-to-build ratio is rising,” said Ken Vieth, ACT senior partner and general manager. Poor weather in January made business difficult, but quarterly sales should increase sequentially throughout the year, he said.

Ward’s said Volvo Trucks North America posted a strong increase of 68.1% to 1,271 units from 756, and took third place in February. Volvo dealer Ron Remp, Wheeling (W.Va.) Truck Center, gave credit to the company’s engines.

“There’s a 5% increase in mileage immediately — even before the break-in period is over. Rising fuel prices are not a good thing, but it does encourage people to convert and save with the new technology that is now more valuable,” said Remp, who represents Volvo dealers on the board of American Truck Dealers.

The two brands of Paccar Inc. took fourth and fifth places, with Kenworth Trucks posting a 43.4% increase to 1,048 heavy trucks from 731 last year and Peterbilt Motors growing by 16.2% to 1,025 units from 882.

Peterbilt said March 8 it is increasing production of its Model 382 and 587 tractors.

Kenneth Doonan said sales are picking up at his Wichita, Kan., Peterbilt dealership.

“We’re starting to see sales pick up, especially from small fleets with 50 trucks or less,” he said.

“For a lot of these companies, their equipment is getting old. They waited a year on the new 2010 engines, which are doing better by far than the 2007 engines did when they were new,” Doonan said, adding that the trucks coming in on trades from these carriers have 600,000 to 800,000 miles on them.

Doonan also said Paccar is ramping up output of its 13-liter MX engine from 25 engines a day at the start of this year to a goal of 100 engines a day by the end of 2011. A Paccar executive confirmed that production at the company’s Columbus, Miss., factory is increasing.

Mack Trucks, a sister company to VTNA, took sixth place with 841 units, a 59.6% increase over the 527 sold in February 2010, Ward’s reported.

Western Star Trucks, a niche manufacturer owned by Daimler, had the most explosive growth with a 111.1% increase to 133 units for the month, up from 63 a year ago.