Latest sales figures almost 4 percent up on last year
May 6, 2013
Almost 2,400 trucks were sold in Australia in April, an increase of nearly 4 percent on April 2012.
Meanwhile year-to-date sales are also tracking at 4 percent above the same period in 2012.
However sales are still more than 20 percent lower than the boom month of April 2008, prior to the global financial crisis hitting.
Isuzu leads the pack with 2,025 units sold for the year to date, followed by Hino (1,340); Fuso (1,068); Kenworth (695); Iveco (456); and Volvo (393).
The medium duty segment shows the strongest growth for 2013 so far, at almost 10 percent compared with the first four months of 2012. Heavy duty sales are up almost 8 percent for the year to date.
Light duty trucks are still slightly down on last year, despite a heartening 4 percent rise for the month of April. Light duty vans are also underwater compared with early 2012 but recorded a 10 percent jump last month compared with April 2012.
“While year-on-year growth is encouraging for truck sales, it is important to reflect that the 2013 result so far is tracking at a similar level to that achieved in 2004,” Truck Industry Council CEO Tony McMullan says.
“We saw some very strong truck sales results from 2005 to 2008 and are yet to return to the state of demand seen in those years.”
However McMullan says the Australian economy appears to remain “relatively strong” in the face of some uncertain external factors such as variable commodity prices, the strength of the Australian dollar and the European economic crisis.
“Australian businesses traditionally exhibit a degree of nervousness in the period leading to a federal election and we still have more than four months until voting day,” McMullan warns.
Nevertheless he says the freight task continues to grow, “and TIC members are reasonably optimistic that demand will hold at or around present levels for the remainder of the year”.
