Truck Industry Council says January sales figures can be seen as glass half full or glass half empty
The Truck Industry Council describes January’s new truck sales figures as “solid”.
Official T-Mark statistics show that 1,736 units were sold in January, which is down almost 8 per cent on January 2013.
The TIC says the result is the fifth best – “glass half full” scenario – or the fifth worst – “glass half empty” — in the past 10 years, depending on how you want to look at it.
“So a slow, but solid, or ‘average’, start to the year,” the organisation says.
“And a result in line with the slowing of the market that was seen in the latter half of 2013.”
The TIC says January 2014 is the second strongest post-GFC result, but still down about 23 per cent on the record for the month of January of almost 2,250 units set in 2008.
“Among the segments, Heavy and Light Duty sales continued to fall in line with the trends seen in 2013,” it says in a statement.
Perhaps most surprisingly, medium duty sales saw a “significant decline, quite the opposite to the strong performances generally shown by this segment in 2013”.
By segment, heavy duty saw 595 sales which was down only slightly on January 2013; there were only 334 medium duty sales (down a whopping 26 percent); and light duty sales were 535, down 13 per cent on the same time last year.
“Again, as in 2013, Light Duty Vans continued to go against the trend,” the TIC says.
In January, total light duty van sales were 271, up 33 per cent, and only just short of best January ever — 297 sales in 2008.
TIC CEO Tony McMullan says the overall result “is not that unexpected”.
“The latter part of 2013 saw truck sales decline and what we have seen in January is that trend continuing,” McMullan says.
“Some economic indicators are picking up, for instance growth in the building sector late last year was positive and there were relatively strong Christmas retail sales.
“The truck market tends to lag the general economy by three to four months and new housing approvals by around six months, so allowing for this delay, I am quietly confident that we will see stronger truck sales in the months ahead.
“But we are a long way from the growth seen in the peak market years of 2007/2008”.