Canada Medium- and Heavy-Duty Truck Sales Sink in December

Canadian truck makers undersold in December, down 21.1% to 2,620 units from like-2015’s 3,322.

Class 8 deliveries totaled 1,911 units for December, down 17.9% from year-ago. Group leader PACCAR gained a mere 0.2%, balanced out from Kenworth’s increase of 0.7% and Peterbilt’s decrease of 0.5%. All other truck makers in this segment posted double-digit losses, including Daimler (-22.1%), International (-15.1%) and Volvo Truck (-25.7%). With all brands in the segment posting year-to-date losses, heavy-trucks totaled 23,037 deliveries for the year, down 22.1% from 2015’s total.

Medium-duty truck sales plummeted 28.7% to 709 units from 995 in same-month 2015, with year-to-date losses in each segment.

Class 7 sales fell 9.2% from year-ago’s 260 units to 236. Kenworth sunk 35.7% and sister brand Peterbilt rose 11.1%, leaving PACCAR with a 21.7% drop to 47 units. Group leader International posted a large gain of 44.8%. Ford’s sales cut in half, dropping to six units. Freightliner and Hino also saw double-digit losses of 28.6% and 20.3%, respectively. Over the 12-month period, Class 7 sales shrunk to 4,370 units, an 8.8% fall from 2015’s 4,792.

In Class 6, an 88.9% dive in Peterbilt sales and a 65.6% plunge posted by Freightliner drove the segment to a 57.9% loss. Hino (-35.7%) and International (-61.9%) also posted large losses. Ford remained flat with 4 deliveries. Year-to-date sales in this class dropped 17.3% to 1,068 units.

With its domestic line dropping 33.4% and imports falling 23.6%, Class 5 deliveries totaled 336 units, an overall decline of 30.1% from year-ago’s 481. Volume leader Ford dropped 37.5% with 135 units. Hino saw the smallest decline of only 1.2% to 80 units, while International posted the largest loss of 80% delivering only one unit in December. FCA and Isuzu also saw large declines of 18.3% and 43.4%, respectively.

Deliveries in Class 4 fell 34.4% to 84 units. Isuzu’s domestic line rose 850% but on small volume. Group leader Ford fell 43.8% to 50 units. Hino (-14.3%) and Isuzu’s import line (-62.5%) also posted losses. For the year, domestic sales increased 0.7% and imports dropped 30.8%, leaving a Class 4 combined loss of 6.6% on 1,434 units compared to like-2015.

Over the 12-month period, medium-and heavy-truck deliveries totaled 35,281 units, 18.2% less than the same period in 2015.

[email protected]