U.S. Class 8 Sales Still Lag Behind Year-Ago

With a booming 27.0% spike in October, hitting 36,494 deliveries, U.S. medium- and heavy-duty trucks were finally able to catch up to 2016 year-to-date sales, enough to put this year 0.4% ahead with 336,176 units compared to 2016’s 334,879.

Class 8 came out 36.9% ahead in October with 17,928 deliveries. Daimler’s Freightliner (+50.7%) and Western Star (+20.1%) kept them on top with combined sales of 6,707. Mack Truck fell 3.2% but Volvo Truck’s 10.3% gain kept Volvo Group in the positive. Year-to-date sales totaled 152,409, still 6.6% behind year-ago’s 163,092, leaving Class 8 the only sector to fall short for the year.

Medium-duty truck sales grew 18.7% with 18,566 deliveries.

Sales in Class 7 jumped 14.7% with large volume gains from Ford (+89.5%), Hino (+102.7%) and International (+25.5%). Kenworth was the only truck maker in the group to underperform, dropping 15.9% to 388 deliveries. Sister brand Peterbilt’s 30.6% boost left PACCAR with an 8.4% improvement.

Class 6 was able to pull off a 12.6% gain thanks to International’s 84.6% hike to 1,223 deliveries. That offset Ford’s 18.7% downfall, which resulted in a market-share drop of 10.3 percentage points.

Ford (+29.3%) and FCA (+2.7%), together achieving 85.1% market share, led Class 5 to a 21.6% rise in sales to 6,581 deliveries. Daimler saw great improvement, up 194.5% on 371 units.

Class 4 sales continued to bloom, marking the eighth consecutive October record, a string beginning with only 630 deliveries in 2010, up to 1,451 (+50.3%) last month. Isuzu’s domestic line grew 1.6% and imports, 2.2%, good for a combined 51.8% stake of the segment. The No.2 spot was filled by Ford, soaring 141.8% with 358 units. With October also marking eight consecutive months of year-over-year gains for Class 4, year-to-date sales totaled 14,946, up 32.2% from like-2016’s 11,304.

Class 8 inventory rose last month to 42,091 units, only 2,634 ahead of last year’s 39,457. October’s days’ supply was 59, down from 75 in like-2016. Medium-duty truck makers ended the month with 61,456 units in inventory, an 83-day supply. That compares with 57,664 and 92 days in like-2016.

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