Medium-Duty Sales Continue Positive Trend
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U.S. retail sales for medium-duty trucks increased 10.5% year-over-year in January, marking three months of positive gains, according to data from Wards Intelligence.
Classes 4-7 total retail truck sales increased to 18,273 units from 16,543 during the same time the previous year. But the results also were 20.1% lower sequentially from 22,857 units in December. The most recent year-over-year decline was 4.2% in October. Before that, there was six consecutive months of increases.
“It’s somewhat of a conflicted market,” ACT Research Vice President Steve Tam said. “You look at a pretty big step down, in the lighter end more so than in the heavy end, in the near term. In the longer term, some really solid growth, but you have to frame that in the context in which it exists. January of last year just absolutely stunk.”
Tam added that the bad performance last year makes comparisons difficult. The recent data showed that two of the four medium-duty classes saw a year-over-year gain. Class 7 saw the biggest drop, 5.1% to 4,223 units from 4,452. Class 6 declined 2.5% to 5,622 from 5,769. Classes 4-5 saw sales increase 33.3% year-over-year to 8,428 from 6,322.
“Four was pretty solid, seems to be holding up pretty well,” Tam said. “Five, not so much. It was kind of a weak month, I think, for the Class 5 market. Then the bigger Classes 6 and 7, I still hear we’re competing for that handful or two of parts numbers out there that just haven’t gotten sorted out.”
There is still a shortage of frame rails, Tam said. He sees pent-up demand despite progress truck manufacturers have made securing parts and working down backlogs. He also noted that the issue has been more on the heavy end of the medium-duty market.
“If I look at the order board, either one, the smaller [Class] 4 and 5s, or the 6 and 7s, were arguably double,” Tam said. “Double the level of our normal backlogs in both of those segments. And we are just not making much headwind. We have made progress; six months ago we were 2½ times. So, we’ve whittled it down a little bit.”
Freightliner, a brand of Daimler Truck North America, sold the most Class 7 trucks in January at 1,963 units, as well as the most Class 6 trucks (2,035). Ford sold the most in Class 5 at 2,908 units. Isuzu topped Class 4 with 889.
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