Class 8 Truck Sales Soar in Canada

Buoyed by Class 8’s 82.1% sales leap in June, Canada’s medium- and heavy-duty truck market recorded a 54.1% gain over like-2010, according to Ward’s data.

Freightliner nearly quadrupled its prior-year volume with 738 Class 8 deliveries, while Mack doubled its 100-unit 2010 tally with 201 sales.

Freightliner nearly quadrupled prior-year volume in June.

Kenworth missed the same feat by two units, recording 604 deliveries to prior-year’s 303.

June’s performance marked the heavy-truck market’s second-best all-time monthly gain after August 2010’s 92.4% jump, a result skewed by 2009’s recession-induced sales slump.

Only Class 4 and Class 7 were in the red for the month, compared with like-2010. Their performance tempered Class 5’s 50.3% jump, leaving the medium-duty market with a 12.4% increase.

Through June, Canada’s medium-duty and total medium/heavy-duty sales were tracking ahead of year-ago by 31.6% and 29.9%, respectively.

Related document: Canada Truck Sales by Weight Class – June 2011

Class 4 volume leader, Ford, suffered a 25.4% plunge on 129 deliveries which, combined with Hino’s 52.9% nosedive, negated Mitsubishi Fuso’s 166.7% increase and contributed to a 22.2% segment decline for the month.

Chrysler’s Class 5 delivery tally of 175 trucks was nearly four times its year-ago total of 48, while volume-leader Ford recorded a 23.4% gain on 258 sales.

Hino and International also more than doubled their like-2010 volumes, with deliveries of 52 and 33, respectively.

International was the top performer in Class 6. Its 48.6% gain boosted segment sales 10.3% over like-2010.

But the storied brand was the spoiler in Class 7, where it was the volume leader. International’s 79 June deliveries marked a 28.2% shortfall that virtually wiped out Freightliner’s 27.9% gain on 55 Class 7 sales and contributed to the segment’s 13.5% dip.

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