Boom and bust for truck, van sales in February

After a great start to the year in January, 2017 new truck and van sales cooled in February.

A total of 2276 heavy trucks and vans were sold across Australia for the month, down 10% on February 2016 sales.

Overall, the poor February result has pulled back the sales average for 2017 after January’s great start.

Year-to-date (YTD) sales at the end of February are up just 2.2% (90 trucks) compared to the same period in 2016. By contrast, at the end of January sales were up 21.2%.

The only segment to record positive growth for the month was light duty trucks, up just nine units or 1.1% over February last year.

That is 808 sales for the month, which compares to 799 sales for the same month in 2016.

YTD the light duty truck segment is performing solidly, up 11.2% with total sales for the first two months of 2017 (1411 trucks). That is 142 more deliveries than for the same period last year.

Heavy truck, medium truck and light duty van sales all fell in February compared to the corresponding month in 2016.

The heavy duty truck segment was down 1.9% (-13 trucks) for the month with total sales of 658.

However, due to solid sales in January, YTD the segment is still up 2.5% with total sales of 1137, 28 more than this time last year.

The medium duty segment was down with a total of 465 truck deliveries for February 2017 verses 492 units in February 2016, a loss of 5.5% for the month.

The February result also saw the medium duty segment fall behind the YTD tally of February 2016, with a total of 825 deliveries in 2017 compared to 842 sales to the end of February 2016, down 2% (-17 trucks).

Van sales drop off

February saw light duty van sales crash back to earth with only 345 vans delivered, down 38.4% (-215 vans) for the month.

Poor February sales have impacted the YTD numbers in the van segment which is now 7.1% (-63 vans) behind the sales to the end of February 2016.

A total of 823 light duty vans have been delivered in 2017, which compares to 886 deliveries to the end of February 2016.

President of Truck Industry Council (TIC), the peak industry body for truck manufacturers and importers into Australia, Phil Taylor, says boom and bust is a good way to describe the first two months of 2017 for new truck sales in Australia.

“Of course fluctuating sales in the first couple of months of a new year are not unusual and we should see sales steady by the end of the first quarter,” Taylor adds.

The combination of January and February sales shows a normalisation of the market in 2017, which is now tracking slightly ahead of 2016, he says.