U.S. Big Trucks See Modest November Gain

Sales of medium- and heavy-duty trucks in the U.S. rose a modest 3.6% in November, thanks to large gains in Classes 4-6 which offset losses in Classes 7 and 8.

Class 8 posted disappointing sales of 14,511 units, down 2.9% from prior year. Substantial losses at Kenworth, down 13.4%, Freightliner, off 9.2% and International, down 8.5%, led the decliners, as all brands suffered losses except for Volvo, surging 29.3%, and Peterbilt, up 9.6%.

Overall medium-duty sales fared better, rising 11.9% last month, buoyed by a 73.1% rise in Class 4 sales and a 20.8% jump in Class 6 sales.

In Class 7, deliveries were down 3.7% as Ford’s 39.4% decrease was the largest, followed by a  27.9% tumble at International and smaller declines at Kenworth (-6.1%) and Hino (-5.8%). Freightliner and Peterbilt were the only brands with gains of 21.9% and 8.0%, respectively.

Class 6's 20.8% jump, the second- largest of any big-truck sector in the U.S. in November, could be credited to Ford, which saw a whopping 363.8% hike, boosting the brand's share from 10.9% year-ago to 41.8% last month. The biggest loser in the group was International, down 56.4%.

Class 5 sales rose up 11.6%, led by a 228.9% spike for Hino and 215.3% hike by Freightliner. Class leader Ford, with a 64.5% share, was up a modest 1.2% on sales of 3,424 units.

The best- performing segment for the month was Class 4, up 73.1% over last year. Segment leader Isuzu posted a domestic sales increase of 59.4%, along with a 20.5% rise in import sales. International sales plunged 64.6% on small volume of seven units.

Through November, sales of medium- and heavy-duty trucks in the U.S. were running virtually flat against last year, up only 0.5% on unit volume of 315,501.

All weight classes on a year-to-date basis were up over prior-year except for Class 8, which was down 6.5% on volume of 165,089. A strong December is possible as fleet owners take advantage of stimulus-created tax breaks for commercial vehicles that expire at year’s end. Days' supply and units in inventory declined in both the Class 8 and medium-duty sectors last month.

Class 8 ended November with a 64 days' supply, down from 67 year-ago. Total units in inventory fell to 35,623 from 38,362, WardsAuto data shows.

Medium-duty models had a more dramatic decrease in days' supply, falling to 78 days from 89 in the year-ago period. Some 39,670 medium-duty units were in stock in late November, down from 40,421 in like-2012.

In other big-truck news:

FTR releases preliminary data showing November Class 8 truck net orders at 20,915 units the second consecutive month above the 20,000 unit threshold. While November 2013 orders were 6% above year- ago, they were down 19% month-over-month. Orders for the 3-month period including November annualized to 266,600 units. Preliminary order numbers were for all major North American OEMs.

Don Ake, FTR vice president-commercial vehicles notes "This is the highest number of orders in the month of November since 2010 continuing to show a solid year-over-year increase. However they are not sufficient to indicate a strong beginning to 2014. Order activity was below our expectations and needs to be stronger in December to fill up Q1 build slots. The market continues to grow, but slowly. The 3-month average is consistent with our 2014 forecast."

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