TIC Reports Record Q2 Heavy Truck Sales

According to the latest T-Mark truck market sales data from the Truck Industry Council (TIC), the trucking industry enjoyed strong new truck sales during July and August. The organisation’s latest report goes on to suggest that 2018 is looking like it may surpass the former record year, 2007, for new truck sales.

A Downward Trend Or Just A Speed Bump?

Every year, new truck sales tend to peak in June, and that trend continued this year as June showed the highest unit sales of new trucks ever. Although July tends to be the beginning of a downward portion of the cycle, the TIC reports that this July, sales dropped significantly more than expected. Although August sales are up slightly, they are not meeting expectations across all truck categories quite yet. The under-performing segments include Light, Medium, and Heavy trucks. The one segment that is still outpacing its expected year-over-year growth rates is Light Duty Vans. We will have to wait and see if this signals a real slump, or if it is merely a temporary slowdown.

For the month of August, Australian vendors shipped 3,845 heavy vehicles, which represents a 17.8 percent increase compared to this period last year. The year-to-date growth rate has been over 18 percent up until now. There were 1,257 Heavy Duty Trucks sold in August, up 16.1 percent year over year. Medium Duty Truck sales were somewhat down in July, but in August, they rose to 721 units shipped, an increase of 8.4 percent compared to August 2017. Light Duty Truck sales were up to 1,154 in August, which represents an increase of 9.8 percent compared to 2017 at this point. The Light Duty Van segment experienced a 3 percent drop in July sales compared with July of last year, but the August numbers spiked to 36.3 percent year over year.

According to TIC CEO Tony McMullan, the double-digit growth in the Heavy Duty and Medium Duty trucks categories was good to see. “While the rate of growth has slowed slightly in July and August, much of this can be attributed to seasonal sales trends for those months,” McMullan says. “We also hear that many body builders are running near or at capacity, this may be slowing the final build of some trucks and impacting new deliveries slightly. All in all, I believe that the industry remains on track for a record sales year, potentially reaching 14,000 trucks in the Heavy Duty segment and close to 40,000 vehicles for the total heavy vehicle truck and van industry.”