U.S. Big-Truck Sales Down in June

U.S. sales of medium- and heavy-duty trucks in June fell 19.8% on a daily basis versus year-ago, totaling 35,444 units, WardsAuto data shows. All weight classes suffered declines.

Sales of Class 8 trucks plummeted 30.4% to 18,354. Deliveries have been down every month this year, dragging the first half of 2016 15.5% below like-2015.

International took the sharpest downturn in the heavy-truck group, slipping 55.3%. Freightliner and Western Star fell 31.1% and 18.7%, respectively, bringing parent company Daimler down 30.4%. PACCAR also showed double-digit declines with both its brands, Kenworth (-29.4%) and Peterbilt (-23.6%). Mack took the softest hit, down just 7.9%, but its sister brand, Volvo, plunged 27.6%.

Medium-duty truck deliveries came in 4% below year-ago in June. The 17,090 units brought the year-to-date tally to 105,043, 13.5% higher than same-period 2015.

Class 7 posted the best performance with sales down 1.7% to 5,327 orders. Group leader Freightliner posted a 3.0% gain in sales, giving the brand 47.0% share. Kenworth was the most improved, gaining 25.3% to 438 units. Ford saw a big drop of 56.5% to 147 trucks, which decreased share from 6.2% to 2.8%.

Class 6 slid  2.1% on 5,058 deliveries. A 38.1% leap by Ford was not quite enough to launch it into first place at 32.5% of sales. Freightliner, with a 32.8% share, came in 4.7% behind year-ago. Results were mixed among the remaining brands. Kenworth’s sales shot up 60.8%, while International declined 36.5%. Hino came in nearly flat with last year with a 0.7% uptick.

Class 5 sales totaled 5,516 units, up 3.4% with mixed results. Ford posted an 8.2% gain and FCA lost 27.9%. Other manufacturers with double-digit decreases include Freightliner (-30.5%), International (-64.5%) and Mitsubishi Fuso (-93.4%). Hino’s sales rose 21.6%.

Class 4 deliveries sales totaled 1,219 units with a 20.5% decline, the biggest year-over-year drop for any month since January 2014. A 50.1% slide by Isuzu’s import line caused the most damage, while a 69.4% loss by Mitsubishi Fuso exacerbated the segment’s downturn. Hino performed especially well in this segment with a 146.7% gain. Ford also came in above year-ago, up 26.7%. 

For the first six months of 2016, medium- and heavy-duty truck sales totaled 209,201, 3.0% less than same-period 2015.

The industry closed June with 46,911 Class 8 trucks in stock, equal to a 66-day supply. That compares with 52 days and 52,536 units year-ago.

Medium-duty inventories rose to a 92-day supply on 60,488 units, higher than the 78 days and 53,448 vehicles at the end of June 2015. Stocks of Class 4 and 5 trucks remained especially high, at 111 and 118 days’ supply, respectively.

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