Medium- and Heavy-Duty Truck Sales Rose 16.5% in May

U.S. big-truck makers had the best May since 2006 and it was the 21^st month in a row of year-over-year sales increases. Medium- and heavy-duty truck sales rose 16.5% to 37,225 units, up from 33,185 prior-year, according to WardsAuto data.

Class 8 led all segments and continued to drive the overall market, jumping 24.1% on sales of 21,501 units vs. 17,990 year-ago as all companies posted gains. Daimler’s Freightliner posted a 36.0% sales increase and raised its stake to 38.4%, securing its standing as the class leader. PACCAR’s Kenworth jumped 29.0% and Peterbilt was up 26.9%. Volvo posted an increase of 18.0% while stablemate Mack managed a slight uptick of 0.4%. International stemmed several months of losses by logging a 6.8% gain. Through five months, Class 8 was up 21.6% on unit sales of 97,819 against 80,417 prior-year.

Overall medium-duty sales grew 7.5% vs. 2014 with 15,724 units delivered in May.

Class 7 sales for the month were up a modest 3.4%, tempered by Ford’s 28.6% loss. International sales climbed 15.0%, leading all gainers in the segment. Share leader Freightliner was up 5.3% and Peterbilt slipped 5.1% against Kenworth’s 2.2% uptick.  

Class 6 slipped 2.1% and was the only group to suffer a loss for the month. Strong results posted by Hino (+25.1%) and Freightliner (+17.1%) were not enough to offset a 29.7% sales plunge by Ford, the second-largest seller. Peterbilt sales soared 123.7%, albeit on small volume of only 28 units.

A 105.8% sales jump posted by FCA US led Class 5 to a 20.4% gain for the month, second-best among all segments. Share leader Ford also was up 13.6%, enough to offset losses by Freightliner, down 35.2% and Isuzu, which fell 23.2%. Mitsubishi Fuso deliveries nearly tripled to 64 units from 24 year-ago.

Class 4 sales increased a modest 1.1% to 1,340 units. Isuzu domestic models were up 17.5% and its imported lineup rose 10.1%, enough to offset a 40.7% loss by Ford.  

Class 8 inventory rose last month to 51,741, the highest total in over a year and nearly 15,000 units ahead of last year’s 36,912. May’s days’ supply was 63, up from 55 in like-2014. Medium-duty truck makers ended the month with 53,177 units in inventory, an 88-day supply. That compares with 47,943 and 85 days in like-2014.

In other big-truck news: Navistar International narrowed its loss in the second quarter but missed analyst expectations as its revenue dropped by nearly 2%. Company officials emphasize the truck and engine makers “continued progress in improving enterprise-wide business operations.”

The second-quarter net loss of $64 million (or $0.78 per diluted share) was significantly better than the net loss of $297 million (or $0.78 per diluted share) Navistar incurred for the same period a year ago. It also reflects a 38% increase in sales of Class 6-8 trucks and buses in the U.S. over the first quarter of the year.

Revenue dropped from $2.75 billion to $2.69 billion. Analysts had expected a loss of 18 cents a share and revenue of $2.82 billion.

[email protected]