May Medium-Duty Sales Decline 6% Year-Over-Year
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U.S. retail sales for medium-duty trucks declined year-over-year in May after six consecutive months of gains, according to data from Wards Intelligence.
Classes 4-7 total retail truck sales decreased 6.1% year-over-year to 20,359 from 21,687. They also were down 1% sequentially from 20,564 units in April. Sales figures for medium-duty trucks had been positive year-over-year since November. Classes 5 and 7 saw gains, while Classes 4 and 6 saw declines.
“It’s been lagging, so I think it’s finally starting to do some catch-up,” ACT Research Vice President Steve Tam said. “So, it’s not surprising to see that. In the Class 6 and 7 space, again, the opposite is true. It had its heyday last year in 2023, so it seems to be happy with where it’s at. The customers in that space seem to be reasonably satisfied with how things are progressing.”
Class 7 sales rose 3.8% to 4,494 units from 4,329 during the 2023 period. Class 6 declined 23.8% to 5,682 units from 7,461, Class 5 increased 5.1% to 8,037 units from 7,644, and Class 4 sales declined 4.8% to 2,146 units from 2,253.
Tam
“If it’s any indication, we made no changes to our forecast — our retail sales forecast — in the medium-duty space this month,” Tam said. “We made a pretty sizable adjustment last time around, and again that was in recognition of what’s happening with the change in how much inventory the industry wants to hang on to these days.”
“But from a demand perspective, and ultimately retail sales, very much as expected, and that’s been the case for this market” recently, he added.
Freightliner, a brand of Daimler Truck North America, sold the most Class 7 trucks (2,165) as well as Class 6 (1,409). Ford sold the most in Class 5 at 4,304 units, and Isuzu topped Class 4 with 844.
[June North American Commercial Vehicle OUTLOOK Update] -
Except for Class 8, trailer and Classes 4-7 forecasts were largely unchanged.
Read more from this month's update here: https://t.co/flFv43n4S0#HeavyDuty, #MediumDuty #trailers #transportation #ACTResearch, #ACT pic.twitter.com/mn2wTYGfVH — ACT Research (@actresearch) June 14, 2024
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