U.S. Medium and Heavy Trucks Down 11th Consecutive Month

[kscarbel2]

Wards Auto  /  March 14, 2017

U.S. sales of medium and heavy trucks fell 15.6% in February, compared with like-2016, marking the industry’s 11th consecutive month of year-over-year losses.

The decline in Class 8 sales was the largest in the sector, as all brands suffered double-digit losses in February, plunging 29.4% to 11,200 units compared to prior-year’s 15,875. Only two months in, Class 8 sales were behind 30.4%, down to 22,144 from year-ago’s 31,827.

Medium truck deliveries totaled 16,768 for a decline of 2.8% as every segment, Class 4 through 7, posted mild losses for the month.

Class 7 sales slipped slightly from like-2016, down 2.7%. Hino saw the largest growth in the segment of 78.7%, but on small volume. Ford also posted a large gain, up 31.3% on 168 deliveries. Volume-leader Freightliner dropped 7.1% to 2,131 units with 54.6% market share.

Class 6 deliveries were down 4.0% on unit volume of 5,650 vs. 5,885 year-ago. Peterbilt posted the best performance, up 80.0%. Sister brand Kenworth fared the worst in the segment as deliveries plunged 27.3% on only 101 units. International and Hino also posted losses of 5.5% and 25.8%, respectively.

Class 5 sales fell 1.8%, with a 1.2% gain in domestically built models canceling out the 31.7% drop in low-volume imports. FCA posted the only increase for Class 5, up 34.3%, while International suffered the biggest drop, down 89.4% to only 15 deliveries. Ford dropped a mild 1.0% on high volume, while Daimler (-40.3%), Hino (-30.0%) and Isuzu (-31.9%) posted large losses.

With a 22.5% gain in domestics but a 37.0% drop in imports, Class 4 nearly levels out at 908 deliveries, a 2.5% decline from prior-year’s 1,005. Isuzu’s domestic line increased 12.1%, and raised its share to 44.3% from 38.5% a year earlier. Their import line, on the other hand, sunk 48.5% in sales and dropped to 19.8% from 37.5% market share. Hino doubled in sales on 50 deliveries in February.

Through February, sales of medium and heavy trucks were running 16.7% behind year-ago with 53,694 deliveries. Class 8 ended the month with 32,636 units, for a 70 days’ supply, compared with year-ago’s 52,200 and 79 days’ supply. Medium-duty inventory fell to 57,009 units, compared with 57,791 in like-2016. Days’ supply for the segment grew to 82, from 80 year-ago.

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[kscarbel2]

US Retail Sales of Class 8 Trucks Drop in February

Transport Topics  /  March 14, 2017

U.S. retail sales of Class 8 trucks in February fell 29.5% from a year earlier, as all truck makers posted double-digit declines.

Class 8 sales hit 11,200, compared with 15,876 in the 2016 period.

The last time Class 8 sales rose year-over-year was in November 2015. However, February improved on January’s total, which experts viewed as marking the bottom of the market.

Class 8 sales for the full year reached 22,144, down 30.4% from 31,826 year-over-year.

Mack Trucks, a unit of Volvo Group, had the smallest decline, 11.9% to 1,105 units, compared with February 2016.

Kenworth Truck Co., a unit of Paccar Inc., had the sharpest decline, down 39.7% to 1,331 units.

Freightliner, a unit of Daimler Trucks North America, led the way with sales of 4,310, and a 38.5% market share.

[Red Horse]

Interesting, Wards made no mention of Ford in class 6.  They were the 2016 leader at 36.46% with a huge  December at 51.3%  Guess the U-haul order has been met??