U.S. Class 8 Trucks Soar 26.8%

U.S. medium- and heavy-duty truck sales grew 14.6% in January to 30,704 compared with like-2017’s 25,726 marking the eighth consecutive month of year-over-year gains.

Class 8 sales soared 26.8% with all truck makers posting gains for the month. International saw the greatest growth, up 60.3%. Daimler’s Freightliner and Western Star grew substantially, 23.1% and 31.3%, respectively, resulting in a 38.7% market share.  Similarly, Kenworth (+36.8%) and Peterbilt (+29.0%) allowed for a 29.0% market share for PACCAR.

Overall medium-duty deliveries were up 5.5% with a loss in only Class 5.

Sales in Class 7 grew 11.6% to 4,578. Segment leader Freightliner rose 1.7% to 2,333 and a 51.0% market share. In second place, International hit 1,030 deliveries, a 5.2% bump, good for a 22.5% market share.

Class 6 posted a 6.3% gain on sales of 5,518 units. Peterbilt’s performance (-57.3%) was not enough to keep parent PACCAR in the red, as Kenworth gained 11.2% on much larger volume. Market leader Freightliner soared for the month, almost doubling to 2,279 units, while its share jumped to 41.3%.

Mixed results caused Class 5 to fall 4.7% to 4,964 deliveries. Freightliner and FCA were the downward forces, dropping 69.9% and 20.3%, respectively. High-volume Ford posted a 5.4% gain and increased 6.8 percentage points to a 71.6% market share.

Class 4 enjoyed the best performance in January, up 32.5% on sales of 1,186, the first time surpassing 1,000 units post-recession. Ford increased its share of the segment with an 118.2% sales jump, good for a 26.6% stake of Class 4. Overall Isuzu dropped from 629 to 501 units but still held a 42.2% market share.

The industry closed January with 37,063 Class 8 trucks in stock, equal to an 84-day supply. That compares with 90 days’ supply and 31,972 units year-ago.

Medium-duty inventories swelled to an 84-day supply on 54,521 units, from 90 days’ and 55,483 units at the end of January 2017.

[email protected]