The truck market boomed in July as business confidence soared – up 31.5% for new trucks over the same month last year to a 355 total.
Richard Smart, general sales manager at Southpac, distributors of DAF and Kenworth, is delighted with July sales across their two heavy brands.
He is mindful that the continued strength of the New Zealand dollar NZD, which has recently seen the Kiwi climb to 88 cents – a 5 year high against the Aussie – continues to be a positive economic driver.
“When the exchange rate goes up, business confidence increases and buyers will track exchange rates, and essentially make a call to buy or not,” says Smart.
“We focus on the 23 tonne-plus market, and the Kiwi’s strength has helped but there is confidence in the market,” says Smart. “We have seen strong order intake in July and we expect DAF to record its best ever sales performance in New Zealand this year.”
Murray Kernohan, on-highway truck manager at Gough, is pleased with July sales and how 2013 is panning out. However, registrations tell only a part of the story says Kernohan.
“We’ve had 3 new July registrations but have 10 trucks in body-shops around the country, so the sales pipeline is healthy, especially given CAT being a recent entrant in the heavy on-highway market,” Kernohan says.
Hino was market leader in the market for trucks and buses from 3500kg GVM and over, its registrations rising 85.2% from 27 units in July 2012 to 50 for the same time this year – taking 14.1% of the market.
Mitsubishi Fuso was second on 47 units, up 11.9% from 42 trucks for a 13.2% market share.
Isuzu was fourth on 44 trucks, down 15.4% for a 12.4% share, followed by Volvo on 26 vehicles, up from just four units in July 2012.
DAF and Scania were tied for fifth on 25 units a piece, up 4.2% year-on-year for DAF, and up 108.3% for Scania.
