U.S. Class 8 Trucks Up 17.8% in July

U.S. sales of medium- and heavy-duty trucks rose 15.7% in July compared with year-ago, as deliveries hit 35,966 units, WardsAuto data shows.

In Class 8, nearly all brands enjoyed double-digit gains as sales jumped 17.8% to 18,793 units, compared with 15,340 year-ago. Mack led all brands, posting a 45.2% gain and increasing its share to 10.0% from 8.1% in prior-year. PACCAR’s Kenworth and Peterbilt brands also posted solid gains of 23.9% and 17.2%, respectively. Segment leader Freightliner sales increased 17.9% as its share remained flat at 34.3%. Through seven months, overall sales were up 17.2% and on pace to hit 195,000 units for the year, which would make it the best annual heavy truck performance since 2006.

Overall medium-duty deliveries were up 13.4% as all weight classes except for Class 6 posted gains.

Class 7 deliveries soared 43.7% for the month, largely due to a 107.1% rise in International deliveries and a smaller but solid increase of 22.8% in segment leader Freightliner sales.

In Class 6, the only group to suffer a loss for the month, deliveries were down 10.9% on volume of 3,809 units. A gain of 81.5% for Kenworth was not enough to offset a 25.2% loss by segment leader Freightliner as its share plummeted to 39.0%. Peterbilt also suffered a loss of 24.5% while International was down 18.4%.

Class 5 deliveries were up from prior-year as Ford continued to dominate the segment with deliveries of 3,396 units, good for a 57.1% share. Overall sales for the group were up 9.2% with mixed results among the manufacturers. Freightliner was up 745.0%, pushing its share from 1.3% to 9.8% while Chrysler fell 25.6%.

July Class 4 sales rose 6.8% with class leader Isuzu’s domestic models up 24.8% while its import line posted a 19.7% gain. Losers included Mitsubishi Fuso, down 34.4% and Ford, which lost 20.6%.

Class 8 had a 56 days’ supply at the end of July, compared with 58 year-ago. However, inventory rose slightly to 40,285 units from 35,351. There was an 74 days’ supply of medium-duty trucks, up from 67 prior-year as the month’s unit inventory rose to 49,110 from 39,053.

In other big-truck news: FTR releases preliminary data showing July North American Class 8 truck net orders at 29,516 units, a tremendous 71% year-over-year increase and the second- best July ever. Class 8 orders now have seen 18 consecutive months of year-over-year increases. OEMs continue to increase build rates in response to solid demand for Class 8 trucks and this level of orders will challenge capacity constraints by year-end.  Class 8 orders for the latest 6-month period through July annualize to 325,000 units. 
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