Medium Truck Sales Up 24% in Biggest Month Since 2008
This story appears in the Jan. 24 print edition of Transport Topics.
U.S. sales of medium-duty trucks totaled 30,578 in December, a 24.7% increase over the comparable month in 2009 and the highest amount since March 2008, WardsAuto.com reported.
Medium-duty sales for all 2010 were 271,992 vehicles, a 25.6% jump over the 216,592 units sold the previous year, Ward’s said Jan. 13. However, that volume was still well below the 299,790 Class 3 through 7 trucks sold in 2008.
“These volumes are still way below replacement rates, which shows that many business segments which use trucks as only a way to move their main business items are still not buying,” Chris Brady, president of research firm Commercial Motor Vehicle Consulting, Manhasset, N.Y., told Transport Topics.
Brady said the replacement rate for Classes 6-7 vehicles in 2010 was in range of 131,800, while the figure for Classes 3-5 was about 167,000.
“Nevertheless, the medium-duty market is getting better, and if the economy picks up speed, so will truck sales,” he said.
Manufacturers and dealers previously sold more medium-duty trucks in one month in March 2008, when they moved 31,043 trucks in these classes, Ward’s said.
Freightliner Trucks, a division of Daimler Trucks North America, sold the most Class 7s in December with 1,266 vehicles moved, with International, owned by Navistar Inc., second at 1,259, Ward’s said.
Paccar Inc. was third with 546 vehicles sold, including 296 trucks by its Peterbilt Motors Co. subsidiary and 250 trucks by its Kenworth Truck Co. division. Ford Motor Co. was fourth with 544 trucks sold in Class 7, Wards said.
Navistar, however, finished first for the year in Class 7 with 15,333 units moved. DTNA was second with mostly Freightliners, but also sold trucks from Mitsubishi Fuso and its discontinued Sterling line, totaling 14,427. Paccar was third, almost equally divided between its two brands, at 4,123, while Ford was fourth with 2,664.
“We continue to be the leader in Classes 6 and 7 with our high-performing vehicles, as we have been recently,” Navistar spokesman Roy Wiley told TT. “Volume in sales was up, but not all spectacularly, and in any case, all sales were below replacement rates.”
In Class 6, Navistar was first for December with 702 vehicles sold, followed by Ford with 683 units sold and DTNA third with 522 vehicles sold.
For the year in Class 6, Navi-star also led the list at 12,966; followed by DTNA, 6,680; Ford, 5,781; Hino Trucks, 2,325; and Paccar, 702.
Medium growth was not evenly distributed in 2010.
A total of 38,350 Class 7s sold in 2010, a dip of 1.9% from the 39,087 moved in 2009, Ward’s said.
The next two classes moved up sharply, with Class 6 sales for the year totaling 29,143, up 32.5% over 2009, and Class 5 coming in at 30,976 vehicles sold, up 29.4% over 2009.
“One of the reason why Classes 5 and 6 rose sharply and not Class 7 is that these classes are a prime market for the rental and short-term leasing businesses,” Brady said. “You need a commercial driver’s license to drive Class 7 vehicles but not for the lighter ones, which is one prime reason for their popularity.”
Brady said that businesses that send their trucks on routes shorter than 50 miles a day run many of the trucks in Classes 4-7.
“These are firms whose prime business is not trucking, so that in the early stages of a recovery, they make their initial investments with new capital to improve their core business, not the trucking side,” Brady said.
“Also, a lot of the parcel delivery trucks are in Classes 5-6, where volume rose last year and, in this case, investment in new trucks was improving their core businesses,” he said.
Class 4 sales totaled 849 in December, a 66.3% drop from sales in December 2009, Ward’s said. Class 4 sales for the year tallied at 12,081 vehicles, a 39.2% drop from 2009.
“Class 4 is really in a very narrow weight range of 14,001 to 16,000 pounds, just 2,000 pounds, and the smallest gap in any weight class,” Brady said. “The large segment of buyers for leasing and rental would rather pay a little more and
get a Class 5 that would give them a lot more flexibility of 5,500 pounds.”
Class 3 sales came to 19,553 in December, a 49.8% increase over December 2009, Wards said.
For the year, Class 3 sales totaled 216,692 units, a 44.5% increase over 2009, Ward’s said.
“A lot of these Class 3 vehicles are dual-use vehicles — the larger pickups that are used in construction, farming and mining, but also as personal vehicles,” Brady said.
