The new truck market topped 255 units in January, an increase of 13% over the 226 sold during the same time in 2012.
While traditionally a slow month, many dealers noted that 2013 started with a bit more spring in its step than usual.
Gareth Ready from Pacey Trucks says January was a fantastic month. “The market is generally a bit quiet but we still get big orders and enquiry out of left field which keeps things going.”
David Ching of Hino Christchurch says: “January was very good, continuing on from 2012, and hopefully even busier. We have a great spread of sales across our product range and we are excited about 2013.”
“January was a bit of a surprise and it seems people are back buying, which have been down for a while,” says Merv Avery from Transag in Palmerston North.
“We had to do some tough deals but the buyers are out there, old equipment is starting to wear out and needing to be replaced.”
Brian Watts says from Fuso says January was a bit slow, but he “noticed increased enquiry heading into February, largely driven by the logging industry. We have a good outlook for 2013 as things sit at the moment.”
“November / December was phenomenally buoyant, but January has been a bit quiet,” says Jerry Kavanagh from Cooke Howlison Isuzu in Dunedin.
“We are expecting things to pick up again soon as the confidence from the end of 2012 is still out there.”
Paul Jones from JJ LTD. in Invercargill says: “The market was quite strong last year and that seems to have carried over into January. We are happy with the way things are going.”
Isuzu was the top overall seller on 40, a huge 74% increase for a 16% market share. Hino was some way back on 20, dropping 41% to an 8% share.
DAF, Mercedes and Volvo all sold 17 to tie for third. They were up 113%, 55% and 240% respectively. All held a 7% market share.
Trucks 3500-9000kg sold 66, up 16% on 57., while trucks 9001 – 23,000kg saw 49 units sold, one less or 3% down on last January.
Trucks over 23,001kg totalled 126, up 29% on last January’s 98, and the bus market took a slide, with 24 units sold down 5 or 23% on last year’s 31.
Used truck arrivals up again
Used import trucks continued their climb back to volume selling with 52 trucks over 3.5 tonnes landed here in January. This is 11 more (up 27%) than the 41 imported 12 months previously.
New trucks over 3.5 tonnes, however, slipped in January with only 169 units landed, compared with 222 a year ago. It was the under 3.5 tonne category (utes, vans etc) that really came into its own last month – in both new and used commercials.
New light commercials were running hot with 950 units crossing our wharves, compared with 754 in January 2012.
The increase in used import light commercials was even more dramatic – up from 77 a year ago to 257 this January. The tally included 89 diesel vans and 21 diesel utes, plus 123 petrol-engined vans and 24 petrol utes.
