Heavy-Duty Truck Sales Rise 27.4% in July

By Jonathan S. Reiskin, Associate News Editor

This story appears in the Aug. 20 print edition of Transport Topics.

U.S. retail heavy-duty truck sales rose 27.4% to 16,421 in July, continuing a 17-month trend of double-digit expansion, according to the latest survey from WardsAuto.com.

For the first seven months of the year, the sales volume was 115,667, a 36.2% increase from 84,953 vehicles in the year-ago period, Ward’s reported Aug. 10.

See related story: Medium-Duty Truck Purchases Up 15.8%

The sales figures stand in contrast to reports on orders for heavy-duty North American trucks, which have been declining since January (8-13, p. 1).

“The large fleet and leasing company segments are the primary drivers behind this, but we have also seen growth in other segments that recognize the benefits of replacing aging vehicles with more reliable and fuel efficient equipment,” said David Hames, general manager of marketing and strategy for Daimler Trucks North America.

Freightliner Trucks, Daimler’s main heavy-duty brand, drove much of the monthly growth, selling 5,368 big trucks, a 62.5% surge over the same month last year. Seven-month sales have grown 38% to 36,451 units.

Freightliner sales came in first for both the month and year to date.

Daimler executives said earlier this month that while they expect 2012 sales to top those of 2011, the results will be seen as somewhat “disappointing” relative to expectations when the year began (8-13, p. 3).

International Trucks made by Navistar Inc. remained in second place for the month and year to date. It sold 3,260 vehicles during July, a 10.1% improvement over the 2,961 sold a year earlier. The cumulative tally is up 23% to 22,117 units.

The Navistar increase comes despite its difficulties with engine technology (8-13, p. 3). The company declined comment for this story but has scheduled a press event on its plans for Aug. 21 to be covered in the next issue of Transport Topics.

Monthly sales growth at Mack Trucks also accelerated, with the company moving 1,803 big trucks, up 63.5% from the 1,103 sold a year ago. Cumulative sales rose 46.8% to 10,136 units.

“While construction is showing some signs of improvement, activity continues to be strongest in the highway segment of the market,” said Mack’s John Walsh, vice president for marketing.

Walsh said the company is selling heavily on the notion of its integrated powertrain, including in-house engines and transmissions (see story, p. 31).

Mack sold the fifth most trucks during the month but year-to-date remained in sixth place.

“Sales have been fairly good, but we’re also seeing a lot of dealer inventory on the ground,” said Robert Nuss of Nuss Truck & Equipment, with seven Great Lakes area locations.

After attending a recent meeting of the Minnesota Trucking Association, Nuss said truckload carriers were doing well, although his vocational sales for construction remain “soft.”

Another Midwestern dealer for a brand other than Mack or Volvo corroborated Nuss’ inventory comments.

“Last year, the retail business — one, two or three trucks at the most, to owner-operators or private fleets — started doing really well, but that stopped or became very minimal around April 1 of this year,” the dealer said. That has led to an inventory buildup he has not been able to clear, said the dealer, who did not want his name or his company’s used.

In talking with his fleet-manager customers, the dealer said, he learned that, while their current business is pretty good, they are so concerned about how the government’s role in the economy might change because of the presidential election, they are standing on the sidelines.

The two brands of Paccar Inc. took third and fourth places both for July and the first seven months of the year.

Peterbilt Motors sold 2,310 trucks for the month, a 0.8% gain from 2,291 in July 2011. Cumulative sales are up a more robust 40% to 16,516 units.

Kenworth Trucks had monthly sales of 2,018 Class 8s, a 22.2% improvement from 1,652. The year-to-date volume jumped 51.5% — the most of any brand — to 16,690 heavy trucks.

Volvo Trucks, Mack’s sister company, saw monthly sales rise by 7.1% to 1,471. Cumulative volume is up 26.3% to 12,403 units.

Western Star, DTNA’s customized niche brand, was the only nameplate to contract during July, dipping 3.1% to 190 vehicles from 196. However, the seven-month volume is up 34.6% to 1,349 units.

In year-to-date market share, the two Paccar companies have combined to add 1.8 percentage points to 28.7% from 26.9%.

Navistar lost 2.1 points, declining to 19.1% from 21.2% in the year-ago period.

Freightliner gained 0.4 point to 31.5% from 31.1%, while Western Star was still at 1.2%.

Volvo Group’s combined brands dipped by 0.2 point to 19.5% from 19.7%, with Mack’s gain compensating for most of Volvo’s loss.