It was a strong start to the new year for registrations of new heavy trucks and buses (over 3500kg GVM) which was no doubt pleasing for the OEM distribution network.
There were 518 new heavy truck and bus (over 3500kg) registrations in January 2019, up from 456 in the same period the previous year, an increase of 13.6%.
Market leader Isuzu had a very good start to the year with 104 units registered, up from 66 in the previous corresponding period.
In second place, Fuso New Zealand saw 73 new heavy commercial registrations, also up from 66 in the previous corresponding period.
In third place, Hino Distributors saw 53 new heavy commercials registered in January 2019 up from 45 units in the previous corresponding period, while in fourth place the Volvo truck and bus brand saw 52 new vehicle registrations, up from 21 at the same time last year.
Southpac Trucks saw 28 registrations of new DAF heavy commercials, up from 21 in the previous corresponding period, while Bus Manufacturer Alexander Dennis saw 24 new vehicle registrations in January 2019, up from 7 units at the same time last year.
However, other brands saw a decline in new heavy commercial vehicles (over 3500kg GVM) registrations.
Fiat saw a decline to 22 units registered in January 2019 (37 in January 2018), Kenworth dropped to 22 (32 in January 2018) and Mercedes-Benz to 17 new vehicle registrations in January 2019 (34 in January 2018).
Isuzu New Zealand general manager Colin Muir says he wasn’t expecting January to be a big new registration month for the heavy commercial brand, as the usual frustrations of getting trucks out of build apply, but he believed the result will be close to the required target.
“Being a shorter month the results in January depend upon the levers that were pulled by the market in December, it will be a more natural number and indicative of the activity during this period,” he says.
Muir says that the pipeline of new Isuzu product is as strong as ever, he says the number within it peaked in March 2018 and the amount is not a lot under that now.
He believes February registrations will pick up as there are more trading days in the month.
“The flow of product will hopefully be more consistent this year as I believe the stink bug issue won’t be such a big issue in 2019 as it was last year,” Muir says.
While there are no apparent headwinds, Muir believes there will be a natural slow down of new heavy commercial registrations in 2019.
“While it’s not another GFC situation looming, two years of new heavy commercial registrations in excess of 5000 units is not sustainable, I think we will hit a natural peak and trough this year,” he says.
Meanwhile, total used commercial registrations over 3500kg GVM took a dip for the month.Registrations of used imported commercial vehicles dipped by more than 5% in January to 184 units as opposed to 194 in the previous corresponding period.
Toyota lead the used commercial market with 38 units registered, up from 33 in the previous corresponding period, followed by Isuzu with 36, down from 54 at the same time last year.Hino took third place on the used commercial table with 35 units registered up from 24 in the previous corresponding period, fourth placed Nissan saw 22 registered up from 19, and fifth-placed Mitsubishi saw 21 registered, up from 18 in the previous corresponding period.
The new heavy vehicle segment over 23,000kg GVM was up 23% year-on-year with a total of 232 units registered in January.
This compares to 188 in the same period the previous year.
Volvo leads the segment, up 194% with 50 units registered and a 22% market share.
Isuzu comes in second, up 32% with 29 units registered and a 12.5% market share.
DAF comes in third, up 24% with units registered and a 11% market share.It was followed by Hino, up 57% with 22 units, Kenworth down 31% (22), Fuso unchanged (16), MAN up 100% (14), UD Trucks up 22% (11), Scania down 25% (9) and Freightliner up 50% (6).
The new medium truck segment between 9000kg to 23,000kg GVM is up 48% year-on-year with a total of 99 units registered for January compared to 67 in the same period the previous year.
Isuzu takes the top spot, 176.5% with 47 registered and a 47.5% market share.
Hino comes in second, up 33% with 20 registered and a 20% market share.
Fuso is third, up 90% with 19 registered.
UD Trucks follows, down 61.5% (5) and Iveco down 57% (3).
The new light commercial segment between 3500kg to 9000kg GVM featuring trucks, vans and buses was down 2% year-on-year with a total of 131 units registered compared to 134 in the same time the previous year.
Fuso leads the segment, up 17% with 34 registered and a 26% market share.
Isuzu comes in second, up 130% with 23 and a 18% market share.
Fiat is third, down 40.5% with 22 and a 17% market share.
Hino follows, down 35% with 11 registered, Mercedes-Benz down 61% with nine registered and Iveco up 40% with seven.
Registrations for new commercial vehicles (inder 3500kg) in January 2019 fell by one per cent (48 units) year on year, but the biggest surprise was the Mitsubishi Triton overtaking the Toyota
Hilux to sit in second place behind the perennially market-leading Ford Ranger.The Ranger achieved a 21% share (837 units) followed by the Triton with 11% share (445) with the Hilux in third also with 11% market share (434).
Mitsubishi Motors New Zealand chief operating officer Daniel Cook says the response to the launch of the new Triton has been the most phenomenal one yet that he has seen in the 16 years in which he has worked with the company.
“To pip out Hilux for second place in our first month of sales is a very good sign, we were very pleased with the result, especially for January which is not normally a strong month for new ute sales,” he says.
Cook also says that new registrations were a 50:50 sales split between the run-out model and the all-new Tritons which arrived in dealer yards between January 10 and 15.
He says sales of the new Triton Ute have been skewed to the top spec VRX model priced at $49,990.
“We underestimated the amount of interest in the top-spec VRX models but there are more boatloads of these coming, it’s a shift for us into the higher end of the market where we expect volume to grow,” Cook says.
“We will hold our introductory pricing for the new Triton model range until the end of the Fieldays season in June,” he says.
In the commercial sector, Ford regained the market lead with 22% (888 units) followed by Toyota with 15% (594) and Mitsubishi third with 11% market share (445).
New vehicle registrations in January 2019 (cars and trucks) have fallen by 6% (896 units) year-on-year to 13,938 but not withstanding the lower result, it was still the second strongest January on record according to industry body, the Motor Vehicle Industry Association of New Zealand (MIA).
“As 2019 gets under way, the economic environment that existed this time last year and before that has begun to fundamentally change, albeit slowly.
However, levels of new vehicle sales while softer than this time last year, remain at historically high levels,” MIA chief executive officer David Crawford says.
The new tractor segment is down 11% year-on-year with 144 units registered in January compared to 162 in the same period the previous year.
John Deere leads, down 33% with 37 units and a 26% market share.
Massey Ferguson in second, up 14% (24) and New Holland in third, up 27% (14).
Case IH follows, up 30% (13), Fendt down 8% (12), JCB up 200% (12), Kubota unchanged (12) and Tractor up 250% (7).
Sales of tractors and farm machinery hit a new record in 2018 and there are no signs of a slowdown, NZ Tractor and Machinery Association (TAMA) president John Tulloch says.
TAMA figures to the end of December showed a total of 4640 retail sales across all HP (horsepower) categories compared to 4079 in 2017 and 4062 in the boom dairy year of 2014.
Tulloch expects the strong sales trend to continue through 2019 unless there was a global event that had a sudden impact, he says.
“Of course we never know what the weather will throw at us but most of our customers are used to dealing with climate variations, even extreme ones.
We’ve had a wet season but that could well be followed by a dry season.”
The industry, which accounts for a large proportion of TAMA sales, was looking to improve based on the last five global dairy trade auctions.
The latest auction on resulted in a global dairy trade (GDT) price index increase of 4.2%.
The increases are reflecting the flow-on impacts of the European summer drought on local dairy production there, Tulloch says.
The current Australian drought would also affect production across the Tasman.
“When 
global supplies are tight and demand is good then prices have to go up.
This would be a welcome relief to our industry after recent difficulties for dairying.”
