February Sales Halt Canada Big-Truck Sales Slide

Sales of medium- and heavy-duty trucks in Canada rose for the first time in nine months in February, managing a 1.7% increase from year-ago due to strong performance in the medium-duty weight classes, WardsAuto data shows.

Class 8 was down 8.6% as deliveries of International trucks plunged 33.2% and class leader Freightliner were down 24.2%, which offset gains by Mack (+21.7%) and PACCAR’s Peterbilt brand (+17.6%). Through two months, overall Class 8 was down 3.4% on volume of 3,555 units vs. 3,682 in 2013.

Overall medium-duty sales were up 26.0% for February and 10.2% for the year on unit volume of 1,694 vs.1,537 for prior-period.

In Class 7, volume-leader Freightliner surged 111.4%, raising its share of the segment by more than 10 percentage points to 47.0%. Hino also posted strong results, up 59.3%, while Kenworth and Peterbilt combined to lift PACCAR’s deliveries 33.3%. Ford was the only decliner in the group, down 20.0% on small volume. Overall, Class 7 sales were up 58.3%, by far the best performance of all weight classes.

Sales of Class 6 trucks fared the worst among all segments, as deliveries sank 21.1%. For the second month in a row, Peterbilt witnessed the largest decrease, 77.8%, while International suffered a loss of 62.7%. A 150% rise in Kenworth sales, albeit on small volume, was not enough to push the segment into positive territory.

Class 5 deliveries rose 27.8% in March, with gains by class leader Chrysler (152.9%) and Mitsubishi Fuso (100%) helping offset a 20.0% decline by International and a 19.7% dip in Hino sales.

Class 4 sales were up a modest 8.4% on mixed results. Isuzu domestic models posted a 333.3% gain, while its import line was down 58.3%. Hino deliveries also fell 75.0%. Market leader Ford was the only brand to post a sales gain, up 19.1%.

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