Australian truck sales motor to record high in October: ERG

• December
• 10

1:40 am Trucks

Truck sales hit record levels across all categories in October, fuelled by a combination of the sustained economic boom and the pull-forward effect of new emissions standards that come into play from January 1, 2008.

Heavy duty truck sales hit a new high of 1,319 in the month, up from 1,213 in September and a low of 672 back in January.

PACCAR (Kenworth/ DAF) maintained market leadership in the month with 24 percent share, while the combined marketshare of stablemates Volvo and Mack slipped 2 percentage points to 18 percent, with Volvo lifting its share from 9.8 to 10.3 percent and Mack’s share dipping from 10.3 to 8.3 percent.

The combined marketshare of Japanese makes Hino, Isuzu and UD Nissan rose 2 percentage points to 20 percent, driven by a 1.9 percentage point increase in Hino’s share to 4.9 percent. Isuzu’s marketshare actually fell by 1.46 percentage points to 8.1 percent, while UD’s share rose slightly to 1.97 percent, up from 1.3 percent in the previous month.

DaimlerChrysler maintained its 17 percent share of heavy duty sales, Western Star’s share dipped by 1 percentage point to 10 percent and Iveco/International’s share rose by 1 percentage point to 8 percent.

After falling by 12 percent to 811 units in September, sales of medium-duty trucks also returned to record levels, rising by 13.3 percent to 919 units.