U.S. Class 4-8 Sales Down in July

Sales of medium- and heavy-duty trucks in the U.S. totaled 30,341 in July, 24.8% below year-ago and the biggest drop for any month since October 2009.

Class 8 sales totaled 14,085 units, tumbling 39.8%, the largest year-over-year decline in any month in over seven years. Substantial losses by International (-56.7%), Freightliner (-46.1%), Volvo (-41.2%) and Kenworth (-33.1%) led the decline. Western Star outsold last year, but with relatively small volume of 385 units, up 8.5%. Year-to-date, Class 8 orders were down 19.3% from like-2015.

Overall medium-duty sales took a softer fall, slipping 4.1% to 16,256 units last month. For the first seven months of 2016, sales were 10.8% above year-ago.

Class 7 deliveries dropped 15.2% to 5,258 vehicles.  All brands posted double-digit declines except top-seller Freightliner, which jumped to a 41.9% share on 0.8% growth in sales. The largest declines from prior-year came from Hino (-47.1%) and Kenworth (-39.5%).

Class 6 was the best performing group, as sales shot up 11.3% to 4,533 units. The jump can be credited to Ford, which saw a 59.3% hike, boosting the brand’s share from 23.8% year-ago to 34.1% last month. Freightliner also showed a significant spike, 13.5%. PACCAR’s Peterbilt posted a 7.4% gain on small volume, but the parent company came in 22.8% below like-2015 due to a 26.7% loss by its other brand, Kenworth.

Class 5 sales totaled 5,474 units, down 0.3% with mixed results. Group leader Ford declined 1.4%, while second-place FCA soared 56.8%. Isuzu posted a 25.6% gain. Daimler’s Freightliner and Mitsubishi Fuso were down 71.6% and 75.0%, respectively.

Class 4 took the hardest downturn of the medium-duty segments, plummeting 16.7% on 991 deliveries. Top-seller Isuzu’s domestic sales increased 1.0%, but declined 35.3% in its import sales. Ford delivered 4.4% fewer trucks. Mitsubishi Fuso sales plunged 71.0% to 20 units.

Through July, sales of medium- and heavy-duty trucks in the U.S. were 6.5% less than last year, reaching unit volume of 239,542.

Class 8 ended July with an 85 days’ supply in stock, up greatly from 58 year-ago. Total units in inventory declined from 52,512 units to 45,932.

Medium-duty models had a less dramatic increase in days’ supply, rising to 91 days from 79 in July 2015. A total of 56,995 medium-duty units were in stock at the end of the month, up from 51,624 prior-year.

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