Truck Mirror Shortage Hinders Navistar Second-Quarter Sales
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Navistar truck and bus sales in the second quarter of 2024 slumped 31% year-over-year, partly as a result of a shortage of truck mirrors, parent company Traton said July 10.
Lisle, Ill.-based Navistar sold 16,030 trucks and buses in the most recent quarter, compared with 23,243 in the year-ago period, according to Traton, the truck and bus unit of German automotive giant Volkswagen.
A fire at a mirror supplier’s plant meant Navistar’s International unit could not complete and deliver some of its trucks as planned, Traton said. The backlog is, however, expected to be cleared in the second half of the year.
International sells Classes 4-8 trucks in North America as well as Classes 4-5 trucks in Latin America. In the U.S., the company focuses on Classes 6-8.
Levin
Sales of buses at Navistar also fell year-on-year in Q2, the company said, without providing a further breakdown, although deliveries of a new IC Bus school bus model are ramping up.
Navistar sold 19,280 vehicles in the first quarter of 2024, down 14.5% from 22,548 a year earlier, Traton said in its Q1 earnings release. In the first half of 2024, Navistar sold 35,310 vehicles, down 23% from 45,791 units a year earlier, the original equipment manufacturer said July 10.
Navistar was the worst-performing unit in the Traton portfolio in the first six months of 2024 by sales volume.
Traton sold a total of 78,960 vehicles in Q2, down 5% compared with Q2 2023’s 83,527 trucks and buses. Overall sales in the first half of 2024 also fell 5%, slipping to 160,108 vehicles from 168,114 in the year-ago period.
Munich-based Traton said the market environment continued to normalize in the most recent three-month period.
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Navistar’s sibling units Scania and Volkswagen Truck & Bus posted 8% and 49% year-over-year sales increases in Q2, respectively, benefiting from strong market conditions in South America. Scania also benefited from a strong order book and increased availability of the Scania Super powertrain.
The weak market environment in Germany continued to hurt sales of trucks at MAN Truck & Bus, which slid 12% year-over -ear in both Q2 and the first half overall, the parent company said. Some of the slippage was offset, however, by an increase in bus and van deliveries,.
Traton is set to publish its full first-half results, which will offer a more detailed breakdown on the sales at Navistar and its sister units, on July 26.
Navistar’s problems obtaining mirrors are the latest truck supply chain issue for the company in 2024 after 2023 saw an upbeat performance.
In Q1, sales were hurt specifically by slower-than-expected deliveries of rail frames, Traton CEO Christian Levin said, as well as other supply chain constraints.
“We certainly would have expected more out of this first quarter,” he said. “It is a bit [of a} troublesome start of the year for Navistar. It was not what we expected.”
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At that point, however, he was optimistic Navistar’s truck manufacturing lines would reach optimal production in the third and fourth quarters.
Production of the company’s S13 drivetrain in Huntsville, Ala., is expected to reach by the end of 2024, aiding sales. Levin said during Traton’s Q1 earnings call that the S13 meant Navistar went from last to best in class for drivetrains. Production began in October 2023, with deliveries starting in February.
Sales of International-branded trucks totaled 75,500 in 2023, up 9% compared with 2022, the OEM’s parent company said Jan. 22.
