July Class 8 Sales Rise 31.5%, Pushing Year’s Total to 84,677

This story appears in the Aug. 15 print edition of Transport Topics.

Heavy-duty U.S. retail truck sales grew 31.5% to 12,609 units in July over the 9,589 sold in July 2010, WardsAuto.com reported.

The solid gain in June pushed the year-to-date volume to 84,677 vehicles sold, up 43.9% compared with 58,846 trucks sold in the comparable time in 2010, Ward’s said.

However, June’s growth rate was slower than each of the prior two months, when gains of more than 60% were reported.

“This is a big change,” said Kansas-based Peterbilt Motors dealer Kenny Doonan, who remembers the sales boom of 2006 and bust of 2009. “This year has been a considerable increase so far, but it means we’re about at normal again.”

Also last week, ACT Research Co. reported a weakening of Class 8 orders in July, but said that follows seasonal patterns.

Ward’s said six of seven major North American truck brands reported larger volumes in July. Navistar Inc. was the exception, but all seven have posted gains for the year to date.

The operating companies of Paccar Inc. captured first place for the third time in seven months, with their combined July sales soaring nearly 127%, year-over-year.

“We’re going after fleets we haven’t done business with before, and Paccar is offering fixed prices on parts for them, nationwide,” Doonan said.

Paccar unit Peterbilt posted a 159.8% volume increase for the month, selling 2,291 big trucks compared with 882 last July. Seven-month sales are up 79% to 11,798, good enough for third place, both for the month and year to date.

Five to 10 years ago, Doonan said, Peterbilt customers usually had 20 or fewer trucks, and five or less was commonplace.

“Now I’m seeing Peterbilt tractors owned by Wal-Mart [Stores] and U.S. Xpress [Enterprises] coming through town,” said Doonan, whose own seven-month sales of tractors have increased 58.5%, year-over-year.

Freightliner Trucks kept first place for the month and the cumulative period, selling 3,303 trucks in July, a 6.4% increase over 3,103 a year ago. Seven-month volume rose 39.8% to 26,407 vehicles.

Freightliner Trucks’ growth in February, up 56.9%, and May, 73.8%, was torrid, but monthly results can fluctuate significantly.

“The summer retail sales slowdown continued in July, as anticipated. DTNA’s July retail sales performance was consistent with overall market trends,” said David Hames, general manager of marketing and strategy for Daimler Trucks North America, Freightliner’s parent.

Navistar kept second place for the month and year, selling 2,685 units in July, a 9.1% decrease from 2,954. Year-to-date volume rose 3.1% to 17,710 big trucks.

Chairman and CEO Daniel Ustian told an investment conference on Aug. 10 he expects to be selling more trucks soon, and that Navistar’s production of 11-, 13- and 15-liter diesel truck engines will increase to 1,200 per week in the fall, from the current 800.

“Navistar is on track to deliver on its plans and we expect increased second-half momentum as customers continue to report positive experience with our proprietary engines,” said Navistar spokesman Steve Schrier.

Ustian said Navistar changed its sales expectations for the fiscal year ending Oct. 31 based on actual volumes through June. The company slightly trimmed its forecast for industrywide Class 8 sales but increased its medium-duty estimate.

Kenworth Trucks, Peterbilt’s Paccar stablemate, took fourth place with a 93% leap to 1,652 big trucks in July from 856 a year ago. Seven-month sales jumped 91.4% to 11,020 vehicles.

Volvo Group’s two North American units — Volvo Trucks and Mack Trucks — took fifth and sixth places for the month.

Volvo sold 1,374 big vehicles in July, up 40.6% from last year’s 977. Cumulative volume rose 102.1% — the most of any truck maker — to 9,823 vehicles.

More trucks are going to work as leased vehicles rather than as fleet property, said Wheeling, W.Va., Volvo dealer Ron Remp.

“When you look at the expenses involved on the equipment and the emission system complexity, there are lots of questions out there, so some fleets are leaning more toward leasing,” said Remp.

Remp said new orders are still coming in, but the stock market chaos is also on their minds.

“What we’ve seen is unprecedented. I haven’t had any order cancellations, but people are on alert. Perhaps ‘concerned’ is the best description,” Remp said.

Mack sold 1,103 big trucks for the month, up 57.3% from 701 last July. Year-to-date volume rose 52.7% to 6,903 units.

Daimler’s Western Star line sold 196 of its severe-service models, an increase of 76.6% from last year’s 111. Cumulative volume is up 73.4% to 1,002 units.

Meanwhile, ACT said orders for new North American trucks were expected to be around 18,800 for July, below the 20,000-a-month pace that was common earlier this year — but still above last year’s levels.

“It is easy to attribute July’s order decline to the pullback in the rate of economic activity. However, July is historically the weakest order month of the year, so the drop in Class 8 net orders below 20,000 units in July was expected. When seasonally adjusted, July’s Class 8 orders are in-line with recent activity,” said Kenny Vieth, ACT president and senior analyst.