Truck market cools across first half of 2024

The Australian truck market results are in for the first half of 2024, showing a cooling across June despite numbers still close to the record highs experienced last year.

The year-to-date sales numbers are tracking just slightly below those of 2023, with 24,075 truck and van sales this year, compared with 24,395 across the same period last year – a retraction of just 1.3%.

This time last year, however, the truck industry was celebrating a new all-time June sales record, when 6,054 new trucks were sold. This year the number has dropped to a still respectable 5,160 sales, representing a 14.8% dip, but it’s still the second best June result ever achieved, indicating demand is still strong.

The heavy-duty segment took a hit in June with only 1,816 units deliveries, down 20.8% (-478 trucks) over the same month in 2023. Kenworth however had a cracking month, shifting 409 heavy-duty trucks, followed by Volvo who sold 266 units.

Despite the dip, it was still the second best month of heavy-duty truck sales on record, and looking at Q2 in isolation, the heavy sector performed well with 4,981 sales for the April to June period – down only slightly (-136 trucks) on the record Q2 result last year.

Then if we look at the H1 result, heavy-duty trucks sales are actually up on 2023 numbers, with 8,769 sales so far in 2024 compared with 8,732 sales to the end of June last year.

The medium-duty segment has gained pace across the first half of 2024, with 4,037 total sales compared with 3,971 across the same period last year. However, as with the other truck segments, June sales were down compared with last year.

A total of 887 medium trucks were delivered in June, down 17.6% (-190 trucks) compared with June 2023, however the April to June result of 2,296 sales is just 3.2% down on the 2023 Q2 figure.

The light-duty truck segment has been taking a hit in 2024 and that trend continued across June with a total of 1,509 sales, down a significant 25.8% on the same month last year.

First quarter sales for the light-duty segment were also down, 3,964 trucks sold compared with last year’s Q1 result of 4,856 sales.

To the end of June, 7,093 light-duty trucks have been delivered in 2024, down on the same period in 2023 when 8778 units were shifted, representing a 19.2% year-on-year dip.

Bucking the downward trend, the van segment continued its charge with record H1 for 2024, bettering the previous record set in 2021. Light-duty van sales to the end of June totalled 4,176 units, up 43.3% (1,262 vans) on last year’s numbers.

“At the halfway mark of 2024 overall heavy vehicle sales are slightly down on the record sales of last year,” said TIC CEO, Tony McMullan.

“Whilst June 2024 sales were down, it must be remembered that they were the second best result ever recorded for the month of June in Australia. 

“We have seen our economy cooling for many months now and this slower June result may be as a result of the general economic slowdown that we are witnessing across the Australian economy. 

“The coming months will confirm if heavy vehicle sales have reached a peak for the time being and the market continues to cool, or if June was simply an isolated slower month.” Mr McMullan concluded.