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HEAVY vehicle sales in Australia are booming and will pass the 4000-unit monthly mark for the first time ever as transport fleets re-equip with new machinery on solid economic data.

The peak trucking body, the Truck Industry Council (TIC), reported sales records in light-duty, medium-duty and heavy-duty truck and light-duty van categories for June that totalled 4231 units, up from the previous best month of 3879 units in June last year.

TIC CEO Tony McMullan said the heavy-duty sales record broke the previous record set in the pre-global financial crisis (GFC) year of 2007, and then again when federal government subsidies artificially boosted the sales in 2009.

“Australia needs to renew its aging truck fleet to make our industry safer, cleaner, greener and more productive. We need continued record- breaking sales to facilitate this,” he said.

“The first half of 2018 is a starting point.

“It is encouraging that, as the Australian economy rallies, truck sales are growing too, breaking many long standing sales records.

“It is particularly pleasing to see the heavy-duty segment breaking records that have stood since prior to the GFC.”

The council’s president, Phil Taylor, said the result capped “a long road to recovery” for the industry.

“I hope that the market strength we see currently continues for the remainder of the year and that 2018 will continue to re-write the history books.” Mr Taylor said.

The climb back to exceed the sales highs of 2007 and 2009 saw record sales of heavy-duty truck deliveries that hit 1433 units for June, beating June 2010 sales of 1421 units.

The TIC said that the previous level of high demand in 2010 was caused by “a significant end of financial year pre-buy of Euro-4 trucks before the then pending 2011 introduction of ADR80/03 (Euro 5)”.

“It was an unusually strong sales result in what was a bleak market gripped by post-GFC fears,” the TIC said in a statement.

Light-duty truck sales also hit a monthly record with 1304 units sold, breaking the previous record of 1233 set in June 2017.

The fourth record was the half-year (January to June) result for 2018 with 19,970 vehicles delivered, up from the previous mid-year peak of 18,218 sales set in the pre-GFC year of 2008 by 1752 heavy vehicle sales.


Individually:

  • Heavy-duty trucks were up 14.6 per cent in June to 1433 deliveries and year-to-date (YTD) up 32.9 per cent to 6820 sales.
  • Medium-duty trucks were up 20.5 per cent in June to 895 deliveries and YTD up 23 per cent to 4084 units.
  • Light-duty trucks were up 5.8 per cent in June to 1304 deliveries and YTD up 10.5 per cent to 6021 units.
  • Light-duty van sales were down 8.3 per cent in June to 599 deliveries but YTD sales are up 5.4 per cent to 3045 units.

By Neil Dowling

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