In the Truck Industry Council’s (TIC) latest market update it suggests truck sales have continued year-on-year growth, although the pace of the increase appears to be slowing.
The July 2013 total truck market of 2,605 units was 4.7 per cent higher than for July 2012, giving a growth of 5.0 per cent over the past2 months.
Similar to most other months this year, July 2013 provided Australia’s strongest post-GFC July result, yet it is still 15.0 per cent below the best July result on record achieved in July 2008. When comparing the first seven months in any given year, 2013’s result of 17,679 deliveries is 16.9 per cent below the record achieved in 2008.
The Heavy Duty segment resumed its medium-term sustained period of growth. It recorded 939 deliveries in July 2013, representing a 2.6 per cent increase on July 2012. It also managed a third place in “best ever July” totals, only exceeded by the same months in 2007 and 2008. Growth in the HD segment for the year so far has slowed from the double digit growth earlier in the year, yet remains healthy at almost 6 per cent. Medium Duty truck sales suffered a dip after a very good June result, with July’s total of 518 units showing an 8.2 per cent drop compared with July 2012. The Medium Duty segment growth rate for the year is still just ahead of the total market, being 5.2 per cent higher than for the first seven months of 2012.
The two segments that have had a relatively quiet first half bounced back well in July. Light Duty truck sales gained 5.6 per cent on July 2012, for a tally this month of 735 units. 2013’s year-to-date result in this segment is now comfortably in positive territory, up 2.5 per cent. Sales of vans in the Light Duty (LDV) category soared by 31.5 per cent compared with July 2012, to 413 units in July 2013. This and other recent gains have led the LDV segment to the strongest year-to-date growth number of all segments: 8.3 per cent.
Tony McMullan, CEO of Truck Industry Council said TIC members are encouraged by ongoing growth experienced by the truck market in 2013.
“However, with the recently released federal government economic statement forecasting some challenges for the economy ahead, and an election campaign under way, perhaps the same level of sales growth may not be sustainable for the remainder of the year,” he said.
“The January 2013 ABS Motor Vehicle Census, released 23rd July, confirmed that the average age of all of the 571,035 trucks registered in Australia is just shy of 14 years. Around 200,000 of these vehicles were built before 1996, and so were not required to comply with any emissions standard. TIC believes that truck operators should be encouraged to replace these oldest trucks in their fleets with new vehicles to improve levels of productivity, safety and environmental stewardship,” Mr McMullan said.