Canada Truck Sales Slip 1.3% in December

For the eighth straight month, sales of medium- and heavy-duty trucks in Canada declined as Classes 4 and 7 were the only groups to post a gain from year-ago.

Class 8 deliveries for December dipped 1.6% as only PACCAR’s Kenworth and Peterbilt brands posted gains, up a combined 11.3%.Overall for the year, sales were down 9.1% to 27,430 units from last year’s 30,163. All manufacturers suffered losses,volume-leader Freightliner was down 11.0% while second place Kenworth tumbled 16.5%, WardsAuto data shows.

Led by triple-digit gains for Ford and Hino, December Class 7 deliveries were up 19.2% and was the only group other than Class 4 to post a year-over-year gain. For the year, however, Class 7 deliveries fell 7.0%, as volume leader International sales sunk 19.6% to 1,508 units.

Sales of Class 6 trucks fared the worst as sales for the group plunged 41.4%. Sales increases for Peterbilt (+316.7%) and Hino (+99.7%) could not offset  losses from all other manufacturers in the segment,as Ford fell 92.6% and International sustained a loss of 60.2%.

Class 5 deliveries were mostly flat over prior period with a slight dip of 0.3%.Manufacturers posted mixed results,with Hino up 86.3% and Isuzu rising 67.8%. The biggest losers in the segment were Freightliner and Ford, down 30.6% and 26.5%, respectively. For the year, Class 5 sales reached 6,191 units, unchanged from 2012 volume.

Class 4 fared better than most other weight classes with sales up 3.3%, mostly due to an increase in Hino deliveries of 316.7%, which was more than enough to offset losses by Isuzu’s domestic and import models. For the year, sales were down 5.0% to 1,475 units.

Overall sales of medium- and heavy-duty trucks in 2013 fell 8.3%, to 40,398 units, compared with 44,046 in 2012.

[email protected]