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April cements second-best-year sales trend

Truck turnover figures better than 2017 but down on last year

 

A third of the year through and commercial vehicle sales are definitely easing down from last year’s peak, according to Truck Industry Council (TIC) T-Mark figures for April.

The story of this orderly retreat has been noted before. In short, sales are not as strong as last year but significantly ahead of the year before.

So far this year, total units sold are at 11,261 compared with last year’s 11,826 and 2017’s 9,675.

Total units for April were 2,943, down from March’s 3,296, the previous April’s 3,151 and up on April 2017’s 2,517.

If a silver lining can be seen in this not-terribly-dark scene it is that March represented an early-year peak but the April slide left totals still better than this February’s 2,826. 


 See how truck sales fared in March, here


However, some manufacturer totals failed to follow that story line.

At 671, market leader Isuzu was down from 728 but still up on February’s 638. So too Fuso, with 303 from 404, after 259 as we count back. UD as well with 49, 68 and 38. But Hino failed to bounce back comparably far at 412 from 457 after 434.

Iveco ditched the script altogether at 161, 112 and 106, while Freightliner went the other way with 15, 16 and 24, as did International, whose woes continued with 1, 2 and 12.

Heavy duty

The heavy-duty segment mirrors the market, remaining in four figures, just, at 1,006 for April, down from 2,916 and up on 963 in February. Last year, those figures were 1,156, 1,174 and 973. Year to date, it’s at 3,922 compared with last year’s 4,059 and 2017’s 2,867.

Segment leaders Kenworth (174), Volvo (140) and Isuzu (113) were all a tad down on their February marks, while next placed Scania held on to three figures, at 104, a long way ahead of February’s 72.

Mercedes-Benz suffered the biggest heavy-duty fall , coming in at 56 from March’s 114 and February’s 101, while Hino, DAF and MAN grew sales steadily to land above the 50 mark last month at 58, 56 and 50 respectively.

Medium duty

Same totals story in medium-duty truck sales at 595, 663 and 674, with YTD at 2,245, down on last year’s 2,442 but up on 2017’s 1,941.

Isuzu made every post a winner at 247 from 244 and 190, while Hino was relatively steady (183, 186 and 174) but Fuso was down 51 units from March at 85, while MAN’s challenge seems to have run out of steam for now (46, 51,66).

Light duty

The charge of the light-duty brigade, so stirring for so long, also seems to have run out of a little puff.

Total sales for April, at 839, failed to top February’s 874. Though still better than April 2017’s 813, it’s not far off, and YTD, at 3,245 is 250 units down on this time last year and, again, not far off 2017’s 3,147 in the scheme of things.

Hino slipped out of the 200s for the months at 171 while Fuso repeated February’s 155 , down from March’s 184.

But there were a couple of surprise moves, led by Iveco, which nearly doubled the 58 and 57 in the previous two months to burst into three figures with 107.

Mercedes-Benz was more steady, with 30, 27 and 26, and Fiat mostly held its early year advance at 37, 40 and 16, while Renault went the other way with 10, 23 and 42.

 

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