Last month better than January but numbers refuse to take off
Australian commercial vehicle buyers are increasingly keeping their wallets in their pockets, with the market looking set to record its worst opening calendar year quarter in four years.
Manufacturers will hope February’s Truck Industry Council T-Mark figures for February fail to presage a return to the worst Global Financial Crisis totals but the fact remains that February’s total for the year is 3,722 vehicles.
The only other time this decade that it slipped below the 3,900 mark at this stage was in 2011 when 3,268 were sold.
At least there was a semblance of improvement over January 2015, with a month-on-month jump from 1,614 to 2,108.
All the truckmakers gained on this measure, with Volvo likely to be happy to be back above the 100 mark, to 107 units after recording 62 in January, as will Iveco at 115 after 53, and Mercedes-Benz at 76 from 45.
Another big gainer was Hino, at 310 after January’s 198.
Going the other way, however, were Freightliner, from 35 to 24, and Western Star, from 50 to 44.
In the heavy duty segment, Kenworth made a solid month-on-month gain from 124 to 149 and this was where Volvo got much of its bounce, from 62 to 107, while Iveco made up ground, from 31 to 51.
Despite individual improvements, the year-to-date heavy duty total, at 638, was down significantly on 2014’s 784 and 2013’s 869.
The medium-duty segment, at 426, was down modestly on 2014’s 477 but up on January’s 336.
The only move of note was Hino, up to 119 from January’s 79.
It was a much better story in the light duty trucks, With February’s 702 dwarfing January’s 448 and up on the previous February’s 598.
Isuzu (171 to 242), Hino (104 to 175), Fuso (100 to 129), Iveco (13 to 55) and Mercedes-Benz (28 to 54) made the running.