New commercial registrations were up slightly in May while used commercial vehicle registrations took a hit for the month.
Total registrations of new trucks and buses over 3500kg GVM sits at 584 units for the month.
This is up by 1.2% compared the same period last year which saw 577 registrations for new commercials.
A total of 2626 new trucks and buses have hit the road in the year-to-date compared to 2474 for the same period last year.
Isuzu is market leader for the month of May with 128 units registered and a 21.9% market share.
The brand was up 13.3% year-on-year compared to the 113 units registered in May last year.
Fuso and Hino share second spot for the month both registering 80 units and taking 13.7% market share. Fuso is up 19.4% having registered 67 units in the same period last year and Hino up 45.5% having registered 55 units in the same period last year.
Mercedes-Benz follows, up 19.4% with 43 units registered, DAF up 40.9% (31), UD Trucks up 4.3% (24), Fiat down 14.8% (23), Iveco down 24.1% (22), Kenworth down 8.3% (22) and Volvo down 45.7% (19).
Meanwhile, total used imported truck and bus registrations saw a 15% decline in May with a total of 192 registered units for the month compared to 226 in the same period last year.
Isuzu took top stop for used commercial registrations, down 29.9% with 47 units compared to 67 in the same period last year.
Toyota comes in second, down 8.9% with 41 units registered compared to 45 the previous year.
Hino is third, down 17.4% with 38 units registered compared to 46 the previous year.
Mitsubishi follows, down 10% with 18 units, Nissan is unchanged (16), Fuso up 50% (6), Kenworth up 300% (4), Western Star up 200% (3) Ford down 33.3% (2) and Mercedes-Benz up 100% (2).
Isuzu NZ national sales manager Dave Ballantyne says the market is carrying strong momentum and it’s still a very “positive” environment from a commercial perspective.
“The dealers are telling me enquiries are strong and orders are up so we’re very happy with the way things are going.”
Ballantyne says the significant backlog of trucks waiting to go through body builds has been an ongoing issue for months now and shows no sign of stopping.
This, on top of strong orders generated back in 2018, is still “driving” a lot of the strong results, he says.
