Medium-Duty Sales Rise 16% in May; Only Class 6 Slips
By Joe Howard, Staff Writer
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U.S. retail sales of Classes 4-7 medium-duty trucks increased 16.2% in May, with only Class 6 posting a decline for the month, WardsAuto.com reported.
Truck buyers purchased 13,763 new medium-duty units last month, up from 11,842 during May 2011. Total volume for the first five months of the year reached 61,631.
The month’s biggest gains came in Classes 4 and 5, with Class 4 sales recording the largest percentage gain, increasing 56.4% to 1,392 trucks sold, and Class 5 posting the best results in volume, increasing 46.4% to 4,989 trucks sold.
Sales of Class 6 trucks, meanwhile, declined 18% to 3,369 units. It was the third consecutive month of declines for the segment; in April, sales fell 13.4%, and in March dipped 1.6%.
These declines combined with gains in the lighter classes could indicate a shift in buyer strategies, said Steve Tam, vice president, commercial vehicle sector, for ACT Research Co., Columbus, Ind., which tracks new truck orders, production and sales.
“One thing that’s shaping up is the preference gradually shifting toward smaller vehicles,” Tam said. “Folks have gotten a lot smarter and more sophisticated about the vehicles that they’re spec’ing and buying relative to the work that those vehicles need to do.”
The biggest motivation there, and it’s no surprise, is trying to drive cost out of the system. If I’ve got a Class 6 or 7 truck but it’s only doing Class 4 or 5 work, then I’ve got more truck than I need,” Tam added.
Sales of Class 7 trucks actually increased, rising 17.3% on sales of 4,013 units, but Tam noted some of that business may be coming from municipalities.
“Not all government spending is beat up,” he said, noting that while some states are battling budget shortfalls, finances are much stronger for some surrounding local governments. “Spotty improvement in municipal markets probably accounts for a nice portion of the solid performance” in Class 7, he said.
Among individual manufacturers, Navistar’s International trucks bucked the Class 6/7 trend, selling 1,830 Class 6 models, a 9.8% improvement, while recording a 9.9% decline in Class 7 sales, to 1,171 units.
Meanwhile, May results from Freightliner Trucks, a division of Daimler Trucks North America, followed the market; the brand saw its Class 6 business decline 50.5%, to 734 units, but posted an increase of 39.6% for Class 7, with 1,650 finding buyers.
Class 5 sales gains were driven by the Ford and Ram truck brands. Ford’s sales in the segment increased 48.8% to 2,870 units, while Ram, the truck division of Chrysler Group LLC, saw its Class 5 sales more than double, from 612 units a year ago to 1,320 last month.
“This is the time of year when businesses are looking to replace trucks and vans,” said Bob Hegbloom, director of Ram Truck marketing in Farmington Hills, Mich. “It’s post-tax season. Commercial work, landscaping and construction all pick up heading into the summer, and fuel prices traditionally fall.”
