Truck Sales Still Strong
They sold 18,332 trucks in the U.S. retail market in September 1998, up 20.2% from September 1997, according to data from the American Automobile Manufacturers Assn.
For the year-to-date, the industry has moved 151,796 Class 8s 18.5% more than last year.
ut even as a record year looms, there are indications of a slowdown. The investment firm Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, New York, pointed out that Class 8 order cancellations more than doubled during August. At the same time, net orders fell 27% from the past year’s average.
Many analysts believe we won’t glimpse the shape of things to come until after the holidays.
“Any speculation needs to be centered on 1999,” said Thomas S. Albrecht, vice president and senior transportation analyst with ABN AMRO Inc., Chicago. “1998 isn’t going to fall apart in the last few months of the year.”
In the meantime, the banner year continues.
Market leader Freightliner Corp. sold 5.668 trucks in September, down from its sizzling August but still up 31.8% from last year.
Navistar International Transportation Corp. did well too, selling 3,002 units 11.5% better than last September.
Kenworth Truck Co., Mack Trucks and Volvo Truck North America were neck and neck for third place in the sales race: Kenworth sold 2,184 Class 8s, up 33.5%; Mack 2,080, up 1.1%; and Volvo 2,004, up a blistering 44.5%.
Peterbilt Motors Corp. increased its sales 12% with 1,888.
Freightliner’s Sterling Truck Corp. subsidiary, the successor to Ford Heavy Truck, also kept up its growth. It moved 1,199 trucks, 351 more than August.
Western Star sold 211 units, up 12.8%, and other manufacturers sold a total of 51, a 2% increase.
nly 45 of the remaining Ford-badged trucks were sold, down 95.4% from September 1997.
In the year-to-date Class 8 market share race, Freightliner continued to lead with 30.4%, up 2%.
avistar’s market share was 19%, a 0.4% increase.
Mack posted a 12.3% share, the same as last year.
Volvo captured 11.9%, up 2.5%.
Kenworth edged out Peterbilt, its sister company in the Paccar Inc. family, although both were down. Kenworth’s share of 10.4% was only 0.1% lower, but Peterbilt’s 10.3% represented a 1.1% decrease.
Together, the Paccar subsidiaries sold 4,072 Class 8s in September and 28,045 for the year-to-date. That’s 20.7% of the market so far, down from 21.9% last year.
Sterling’s share was up to 1.6% and Western Star held at 1.5%.
The medium-duty sales market showed a mix of results. Classes 7 and 4 were down but Classes 6, 5 and 3 continued to be way up.
Class 4 sales dropped 17% to 3,243. Class 7, at 9,097 units, was off 6.5%.
ales of Class 5 trucks, however, soared 205.2% to 2,582.
Class 3 sales rose 179.8% to 8,752, and Class 6 grew 114.8% to 3,013.
In September’s medium-duty sales race, Ford sold 10,082 trucks; Navistar sold 5,519; the Dodge division of Chrysler Corp. sold 3,148 Class 3s; Freightliner sold 2,770; the Chevrolet and GMC divisions of General Motors Corp. sold a total of 2,496; and American Isuzu sold 1,286.
Mitsubishi sold 488 trucks; Nissan Diesel, 336; Sterling, 155; Mack, 122; Peterbilt, 99; Kenworth, 97; Hino, 88; and Volvo, 1.
A total of 2,314 imports were sold in September, up 12%. Imports’ share of the market rose to 8.7%.
ear-to-date Class 3-7 sales totaled 230,061, a 21% improvement over 1997.
With three months to go in 1998, Ford has sold 80,682 trucks so far; Navistar, 48,650; General Motors, 28,952; Chrysler, 27,065; Freightliner, 21,689; American Isuzu, 12,124; Mitsubishi Fuso, 4,272; Nissan, 2,339; Mack, 1,200; Hino, 1,028; Kenworth, 967; Peterbilt, 745; Sterling, 334; and Volvo, which discontinued selling medium-duty trucks in the U.S., 14.
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