U.S. Big Trucks Down 9.9% in December

U.S. sales of medium- and heavy-duty trucks in December fell 9.9% from like-2015 to 35,725 units.

Class 8 sales sunk the most in December, down to 15,629 units, a 22.0% decrease from year-ago’s 20,773 units. PACCAR’s Kenworth increased 5.8% to 3,079 units, while all other companies dropped. The largest declines came from International (-39.2%), Daimler (-31.6%) and Volvo (-23.1%). Class 8 year-to-date deliveries also plummeted, down 22.6% to a 2016 total of 192,662. Volvo’s 12-month total dropped the most in the group, down 33.6% to 20,543 units.

For December, medium-trucks rose 2.3% on 20,096 deliveries. Year-to-date, the group rose 3.6% to 207,694 units, up from 200,529 from like-2015.

Class 7 sold 4,810 units, a 3.9% drop from year-ago. PACCAR’s Kenworth had the biggest gain, 12.7% over year-ago, and its sister company, Peterbilt, also grew, up 10.3% to 689 deliveries. Hino saw the largest drop in the group, down 38.9% to only 158 units from 2015’s 268. Ford also posted a double-digit loss of 21.8% on only 166 deliveries. Freightliner fell 8.2%, while International remained nearly flat, rising 0.9% to 1,188 units. Year-to-date, Class 7 increased 1.7% to 59,917 units from 58,888 in 2015.

Class 6 was the only segment to post a double-digit gain for the month, up 14.1% on 5,623 units. Group leader Peterbilt more than doubled in sales, up 127.2% on 46 deliveries. Its sister company Kenworth declined 6.6%, leaving PACCAR with a 2.4% increase over like-2015 on 308 units. Hino saw the largest drop in this group as well, down 25.5% to 580 units. Ford (32.2%) and Freightliner (16.4%) posted positive gains. Year-to-date, Class 6 performed 11.2% better than 2015, with 61,287 trucks delivered.

Class 5 came in with 7,880 units, a 2.4% drop from last year’s 8,370, due largely to the 3.3% drop in domestics. Imports rose 4.6% to 1,015 units. Daimler’s Freightliner and Mitsubishi Fuso posted large drops of 59.4% and 82.2%, respectively, bringing Daimler down 61.0% to 192 units. FCA (47.1%), Isuzu (22.6%) and Peterbilt (3.7%) were the only brands to increase from year-ago. Kenworth plummeted 74.1%, International dove 73.0% and Hino sunk 42.5%. Despite the large declines, Class 5 remained nearly flat for the 12-month period, up only 0.1% to 72,241 units from like-2015. Year-to-date, Class 5 imports rose 4.9%, but domestics dropped 0.4%.

Class 4 imports fell 10.5%, but domestics soared 25.7%, leaving Class 4 up 8.8% in total on 1,783 units. Isuzu’s domestic line posted the largest gain in the group, up 29.1% on 777 deliveries. Mitsubishi Fuso dropped the most to only 15 units, an 83.5% drop from like-2015’s 94 units. Ford (-25.7%) and Hino (-27.7%) saw large double-digit losses, while Isuzu’s import line fell only 4.8%. In the 12-month period, Class 4 domestic line rose 15.6%, while imports fell 18.3%, leaving Class 4 year-to-date dropping only 0.8% to 14,249 units.

U.S. big-truck sales finished the year with 400,356 deliveries, down 10.9% from year-ago’s 449,333.

December finished with a 73-day supply of medium-duty trucks in inventory, down from only 74 in like-2015. A 55-day supply of Class 8 heavy-duty trucks was down sharply from 2015’s 70 day-supply.

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