U.S. Medium Trucks Up, Heavy Trucks Down in January

U.S. sales of medium- and heavy-duty trucks in January rose 10.2% on a daily basis from year-ago, reaching 31,209 units, a 9-year high for the month, WardsAuto data shows. This success follows a year-over-year decline and a high accumulation of inventory in December. All weight classes experienced double-digit gains except Class 8.

Class 4 showed the greatest gain, up 37.1% to 791 deliveries. Group leader Isuzu posted a 31.4% increase in the sales of its domestic models and an 86.0% rise for imports. Mitsubishi Fuso saw a big drop, 66.9%, but on small volume of 18 units.

Class 5 followed close behind in year-to-year growth, jumping 36.1% to 5,457 units, a best-ever January result.  A 292.4% gain by Freightliner lifted its parent brand, Daimler, 201.1%. Ford increased share to 68.7% with a 40.6% sales increase to 3,749 trucks. FCA and Hino also recorded double-digit growth, up 23.5% and 38.5%, respectively.

Class 6 orders rose 27.8% to 4,678. The only decline was from Peterbilt, 32.9%, but with just 13 units. Ford sales grew 48.0% to 1,594 trucks, narrowing the gap between it and Freightliner, which sold 1,635 units with an 18.8% gain from 2015. Deliveries from Hino rose 18.1%.  International was up 21.3%.

Class 7 sales hit 4,334 units, a 7.3% improvement. Leader Freightliner posted a 25.0% gain with 2,241 deliveries. Ford saw truck sales fall 25.5% in this category. International also fell, slipping 12.4%. A 19.5% drop for Kenworth was outweighed by a 32.6% rise for Peterbilt, leaving PACCAR up 5.2%.

Medium-duty truck sales totaled 15,260 units in January, 24.2% greater than like-2015.

Although Class 8 sales were down from last year, the total was a 9-year high excluding the 17,373 units sold in January 2015. Heavy truck deliveries came to 15,949 in the first month of 2016, 0.5% below year-ago based on the daily sales rate.  Freightliner, with 43.4% share, was down 3.4%. Orders from PACCAR slipped 6.5%, with a 16.1% drop for Kenworth and a 3.8% gain from Peterbilt. The biggest decline came from Volvo brand (-31.9%), but the downward pull was eased by a 28.7% boost from Mack, leaving the Volvo parent company off just 9.8%

Medium-duty inventory sat at 54,977 units at the end of January, equating to an 86-day supply. Class 7 was the only category below prior-year in a days-supply comparison.

The month ended with 53,015 heavy trucks in stock, or an 80-day supply, up significantly from the 61 days from like-2015.

Diesel prices averaged $2.143 per gallon in the U.S. in January, 28.5% less than like-2015 and 7.2% below prior-month. Gasoline prices were also down, though to a lesser extent. The $2.057 average beat same-month 2015 by 6.8% and December 2015 by 4.1%. This marks an 18-month streak of year-over-year fuel price declines.

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