Medium- and Heavy-Duty Truck Sales Up 12.0% in July

U.S. sales of medium- and heavy-duty trucks rose 12.0% in July compared with year-ago, as deliveries hit 40,275 units, WardsAuto data shows.

Class 8 accounted for the bulk of big-truck gains, with nearly all brands enjoying double-digit increases. Sales jumped 24.4% to 23,383 units, compared with 18,793 year-ago. Daimler’s Western Star led all brands, posting a 60.6% gain while segment leader Freightliner was up 41.3%, raising its stake to 39.0% from 34.3% in prior-year. PACCAR’s Kenworth and Peterbilt brands also posted solid gains of 28.9% and 22.0%, respectively. Only two manufacturers suffered a loss as Mack slipped 6.7% and International was down 4.6%. Through seven months, overall sales were up 23.6% and on pace to hit 260,000 units for the year, which would make it the best annual heavy truck performance since 2006.

Overall medium-duty deliveries were down 1.6% with losses in Class 5 and 7.

Class 7 deliveries slid 1.8% for the month, largely due to losses posted by the segments two biggest sellers, Freightliner plunged 14.6% and International was off 4.3%. Kenworth recorded the best performance in the group, up 43.1%, while Peterbilt gained 33.0%.

Class 6 posted a 6.9% gain on sales of 4,071 units. Peterbilt’s performance (+145.5%) was not enough to keep parent PACCAR in the black, as Kenworth lost 16.3% on much larger volume. Market-leader Freightliner was flat for the month, matching last year’s tally of 1,486 units, while its share slipped to 36.5%.

Overall deliveries in Class 5 fell 8.8%, with nearly all brands suffering losses. Class-leader Ford reported a 2.4% uptick, raising its stake to 64.1%, up from 57.1% last year. However, double-digit declines by International (-68.8%), FCA (-35.3%) and Mitsubishi Fuso (-12.5%) kept overall sales in the negative.

July Class 4 sales rose 8.8%, with class-leader Isuzu’s domestic models up 23.6% while its import line slipped 6.9%. Mitsubishi Fuso rose 19.0% and Ford was up 18.0%.

The industry closed July with 52,512 Class 8 trucks in stock, equal to a 58-day supply. That compares with 56 days’ supply and just 40,285 units year-ago.

Medium-duty inventories swelled to a 79-day supply on 51,624 units, from 74 days’ and 49,110 units at the end of July 2014.

In other big-truck news: The average price of a gallon of on-highway diesel fuel was down for the 11th straight week according to the latest numbers from the U.S. Department of Energy. The price of diesel dropped 5.1 cents nationally to an average price of $2.617 per gallon. The price is down $1.226 per gallon from the same week a year ago.

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