May Best Month Yet for Canadian Heavy Truck Sales

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Wards Auto  /  June 14, 2017

The Canadian big-truck industry had a good month in May, up 2.7% from year-ago with small drops in Classes 6 and 8. With one more selling day this year than last, truck makers sold 3,996 units compared to 3,734 in like-2016.

Class 8 ended May with 2,395 deliveries, a 1.8% decline from year-ago. Daimler’s Freightliner and Western Star saw double-digit losses of 14.9% and 23.5%, respectively, resulting in a 17.1% fall for the company. Similarly, Volvo Truck slumped 19.9% with Mack (-4.0%) and Volvo (-27.9%) underperforming. Paccar, however, climbed 39.5% and increased market share from 21.0% to 29.9% with big gains from Kenworth (+42.3%) and Peterbilt (+35.8%). International rose 17.4% to 329 units.

Five months into the year, Class 8 followed 4.3% behind like-2016 with 9,209 deliveries compared with 9,619.

Medium-duty truck sales delivered an all-time high for the year at 1,601 units, a 10.4% increase from year-ago’s 1,392. Year-to-date sales were 13.9% ahead totaling 6,543 deliveries.

Sales in Class 7 totaled 416 units, a 20.7% spike from last year’s 331. Large gains were seen from Kenworth (+117.8%), Peterbilt (+50.4%) and Hino (+30.7%). International also had a good month with deliveries increasing 12.3% to 131. Ford and Freightliner floundered with declines of 55.7% and 14.0%, respectively.

Class 6 sales remained nearly flat with a 0.7% slip on 119 deliveries. Volume leader Hino plummeted 23.2% and lost 12.8 percentage points in market share. Ford sales were nearly a third of what they were last year, dropping to only five units, and Freightliner’s deliveries were cut in-half, down to 11. International saw the biggest improvement in May, soaring 604% to 22 units from 3 in 2016. Paccar also hit triple-digit gains with Kenworth (+92.0%) and Peterbilt (+135.6%) totaling 29 sales for the month.

The 11.2% gain in domestics helped offset a 24.8% decline in imports for Class 5. Ford accounted for most of the gain in domestics, hitting 358 units and 44.0% market share. FCA also helped with a 16.8% spike to 180 units. International posted a 188.0% increase but on small volume. Isuzu’s import line fell 25.1% to 117 deliveries.

Class 4 performed the best of any class last month, with demand jumping 24.6% to 253 trucks. Ford sales spiked 87.6% to 170 units, accounting for 67.2% of the market share. Runner-up Isuzu posted a 48.6% drop in domestics but was able to double its import sales to 21 units.  Hino rose 22.2%, while Daimler undersold 4.0%.

Canada sales of medium- and heavy trucks in May outpaced like-2016 by 2.5% for the year’s largest monthly gain.

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