March Truck Sales Surge 25.6%
This story appears in the April 21 print edition of Transport Topics.
New Class 8 retail sales rose 25.6% in March from a year earlier, the biggest monthly percentage gain since July 2012, WardsAuto.com reported.
The 16,452 vehicles sold was the third-highest total in the past 15 months and pushed original equipment manufacturers’ total for the first quarter to 44,547 — almost 15% higher than last year’s total of 38,805.
The rising sales come on the heels of four strong months of orders — including a 24.4% jump in March — and a recent projection by ACT Research Co. that this year’s sales will top 2013 by double digits.
“Our customers are buying equipment across the board — not just for replacement but also for a little bit of growth,” said Kyle Treadway, president of Salt Lake City-based truck dealership Kenworth Sales Co.
He said his dealerships across the West Coast were seeing “steady improvements in vocational, flatbed, bulk general commodities — for us it’s across the board,” he said, while adding they were still below pre-recession levels.
Navistar International Corp. posted a 40.3% gain in March to 2,690 trucks, moving to No. 2 in market share, up from third in February.
“Another strong retail sales month indicates the market has the potential to outperform current industry expectations,” said Bill Kozek, Navistar’s president of North America truck and parts.
“While our full-year [industrywide] Class 8 forecast of 220,000 to 230,000 retail sales remains unchanged, the past five months have been encouraging,” he said. “Replacement demand also continues to increase, indicating growing confidence in the economy.”
Freightliner Trucks, part of Daimler Trucks North America, posted 4.8% higher sales in March from a year ago, to 5,303 units, although its year-to-date sales slipped 1.4%.
Freightliner remained the leading OEM in market share, with 32.2%.
“We are pleased with the development of the Class 8 market and the strength of our Cascadia Evolution product in the market,” said David Hames, DTNA’s general manager for marketing and strategy. “We are optimistic regarding continued strength throughout the remainder of 2014.”
DTNA’s Western Star brand saw its sales slip to 162 from 286 a year earlier. Total market share for DTNA was 33.2% during March.
Volvo Trucks posted the largest increase, with sales more than doubling with a 125% increase to 2,500 trucks. Mack Trucks’ sales rose 8.2% to 1,345 trucks.
Officials for Volvo and Mack brand trucks declined to comment last week because their parent company, Volvo Group, is scheduled to release its first-quarter earnings this month.
A Baltimore Volvo dealership executive said sales have been strong.
“The highway market has been extremely busy with motor freight, and coming into the spring, we’re seeing more vocational sales,” said Mike Gorsch, sales manager at Baltimore Potomac Truck Group.
“Overall, we’re seeing customers tell us there’s an increase in just about everything,” he told Transport Topics. “There’s more highway volume with Volvo [and] . . . more units overall on the highway side, because fleets are buying in bulk.”
Peterbilt Motors Co., a unit of Paccar Inc. along with Kenworth, sold 2,116 big rigs in March, a 13.6% increase, and its sales are up 19.3% year to date. Kenworth’s overall sales rose 34.1% for the month, with 2,332 trucks sold.
“The first three months of the year were really good, and order intake is still fair,” said Duane Roediger, general sales manager for Peterbilt of Northwest Ohio, in Findlay.
The dealership takes orders via Internet in addition to local sales.
Treadway, the Kenworth dealer, cautioned the driver shortage was holding the industry back.
“Freight is up, tonnage is up — they’re all telling us if they had drivers to put in those seats, they’d buy even more,” Treadway said.
