After selling 81 trucks in the Australian market last year, the recent announcement by Caterpillar Inc in North America to discontinue production of it’s vocational on-highway trucks, the Australian distributor Navistar Auspac says it is business as usual.
Navistar Auspac has again reiterated the longterm future of Cat Trucks in Australia and New Zealand will not be impacted by the US decision.
Only the International truck brand sold fewer units in Australia than Cat trucks, with 26 sales recorded there in a heavy duty (Class 8) truck market, which saw 9895 overall sales in 2015.
In Australian heavy duty truck sales, Kenworth is the market leader with 2014 units sold, followed by Volvo on 1470, and Isuzu Trucks on 1203.
Caterpillar’s latest announcement in the US concerned Cat’s North America on-highway vocational truck range, which is available in left hand-drive configuration only, and was never introduced to the Australian, New Zealand and Pacific markets.
Based on the current business climate in the US truck industry, and a thorough evaluation of it, Caterpillar decided to withdraw from this market segment. This decision is also in line with the company’s ongoing restructuring to align its businesses with existing conditions.
Caterpillar launched its first vocational truck in the North American market in 2011, working with Navistar on the products’ design and build.
Last year, the company announced its intention to begin independently designing and manufacturing its vocational truck products at the Caterpillar plant in Victoria, Texas, but has since changed its mind.
“Remaining a viable competitor would require significant additional investment to develop and launch a complete portfolio of trucks, and we have determined there is not a sufficient market opportunity to justify the investment,” says Caterpillar industrial power systems division vice-president, Ramin Younessi.
“We have not yet started truck production in Victoria, and this decision allows us to exit this business before the transition occurs,” he says.
Last year, Caterpillar Trucks product manager David Schmitz also refuted speculation that durable CT13 15-litre engine had a limited future.
“Earlier this year we mentioned that we will have a 15-litre announcement later this year and it is still on track,” says Schmitz. “The 15-litre engine is key to future growth.”
The North American vocational models are built on an entirely different cab and chassis platform than the CT610 and CT630 on-highway units sold in Australia since 2010.
For Australia and New Zealand, Caterpillar’s announcement to end production of North American vocational models will have no effect whatsoever, says Navistar Auspac.
“It is business as usual for Cat truck dealers in Australia and New Zealand,” says the director of sales, marketing and business development, Glen Sharman.
Since the launch of Cat trucks in Australia and New Zealand in 2010, the range has been expanded with purpose-built models such as the CT630LS, the CT630SC, specifically engineered for B-double duties, and most recently, the road-train triples-rated CT630HD.
“We can assure everyone, particularly current and prospective Cat truck customers, that Caterpillar’s announcement has no bearing on our business in Australia and New Zealand,” says Sharman.
“Navistar certainly wouldn’t be investing in development of these models if it saw anything other than a long and strong future for Cat-branded trucks in our markets,” he says.
“Cat trucks are a valuable and ongoing part of Navistar Auspac’s plans for today and tomorrow and any assumptions or speculation otherwise are completely mistaken,” says Sharman.
