The second quarter of 2016 has seen some solid results in the Aussie light and medium duty truck sectors. But the market is very different in the vans and heavy-duty trucks sector, according to the Truck Industry Council of Australia (TIC).
The June combined total of 3552 vehicles pushed the second quarter result to 8902 sales, which is the best quarterly result since the global financial crisis (GFC).
The heavy-duty truck segment continues to lag other sectors by dropping in sales by 2.8%. However, Scania sales were 103 units in June, exceeding the brand’s average of just 33 units per month over the previous five months of this year.
The medium duty segment continues to be strong with the first half of the year sales up 9% (276 trucks) over those of 2015. Most of that growth (248 trucks) has come from very strong second quarter 2016 sales, and June was a particularly strong month that saw a total of 805 medium trucks delivered, up 22.5% (148 trucks) on June 2015.
Light duty (those between 3,500kg and 8,000kg GVM) truck sales have also seen good growth in 2016, and June was another strong month for the small end of the truck market. A total of 1103 light duty trucks were delivered in June, up 5.4% (56 trucks) over June 2015.
The 2016 second quarter result was strong for light duty trucks with 2841 trucks sold, up 284 units over the second quarter 2015 result. For the half year, light duty sales are ahead of the same period in 2015 by 9.7%, or 444 trucks.
Light duty vans (those with a GVM between 3500 kg and 8000 kg) are also struggling with only 590 vans in June, down 12.2% (-82 vans) over June 2015. The half year tally stands at 2803 units, trailing 2015 sales by only 1.9% (-54 vans).
Phil Taylor, president of TIC says: “Again in June, we see that it is the light and medium truck segments that are fuelling 2016 growth.”
“The heavy truck segment still lags last year and poor year-on-year heavy-duty sales will lead to an ageing of this segment within the Australian fleet, and that is not a good long term outcome for truck safety, the environment, nor the road transport sectors ongoing productivity,” he adds.
