Truck sales on course for record first half year

New truck deliveries in 2022 are looking to rewrite the history books for the first half of the year according to the Truck Industry Council (TIC).

The total Australian new truck market for May 2022 reached 3,777 units, up 3.8 per cent on the same month in 2021.

The result falls just short of the all-time record for May heavy vehicle sales, set in 2018 when 3,931 heavy vehicles were sold.

All truck segments posted positive growth over that of May 2021.

As has been the case, however, throughout 2022, Van sales were down again for the month.

Year-to-date, the result for the total market is even better, tracking above this time last year by 721 vehicles, up 4.8 per cent, with a total of 15,900 heavy vehicles sold to the end of May.

When compared with the first five months of the record year of 2018, when 15,739 trucks had been sold to the end of May, sales are up by one per cent, or 161 trucks, showing that the heavy vehicle market is on track for a first half year sales record in 2022.

The Heavy Duty truck segment, again, led the way with sales growth over 2021 sales, with 1,274 HD units sold, up a significant 21.3 per cent, or 224 trucks, over May 2021.

Year-to-date, 5,322 Heavies have been delivered, up 20.52 per cent (906 trucks) over this time last year.

“May was a strong month for heavy truck sales with all segments posting gains over May 2021,” said Tony McMullan TIC CEO.

The Medium Duty segment continues to perform well too, just outselling the corresponding month in 2021 by 4 units, a 0.6 per cent increase.

In total 681 Medium trucks were delivered in May 2022. However, the year-to-date numbers look much better, due to strong sales over the first four months of this year.

To June, 2,964 MD trucks have been delivered, up a very healthy 9.7 per cent (261 trucks) over the same period in 2021.

Light Duty trucks were again well into positive territory up 14.0 per cent for the month with 1,329 sales in May 2022.

This compares to 1,166 sales for the same month in 2021.

In 2022 5,766 LD trucks have been delivered thus far compared to 5,250 in 2021, a gain of 9.8 per cent year-to-date 2022.

As detailed above, Light Duty Van sales in 2022 are really struggling, likely due to supply chain issues in Europe, the manufacturing base for most van brands over 3.5t GVM sold in Australia.

Van sales in May were down by 33.9 per cent over May 2021 with just 493 vans being delivered. This takes the year-to-date 2022 van tally to 1,848, down 962 vans (-34.2 per cent) over the result to the end of May 2021.

“Weak van sales are tempering the overall heavy vehicle sales numbers in 2022, however the market still looks set to set a new first half year sales record, with just June sales to come,” said McMullan.

“The month of June is typically a strong month for trucks sales as we reach the end of our financial year and the signs are all positive that we will reach the halfway point of 2022 with a result that will rewrite the history books for heavy vehicle sales in Australia,” he said.

“These strong sales are a good indicator that business confidence is strong in the road freight sector as it is across most economic segments.”

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