After two record years of sales, truck sales in 2024 started strong but cooled in March falling short of breaking another first quarter record. Overall, sales so far this year are down 1.1% on 2023 with 10,344 trucks and vans being delivered (115 trucks short of a new record).
It wasn’t all bad because the Heavy Duty Truck and Light Duty Van segments set new first quarter sales records. Total sales were down due to the Light Duty Truck segment that posted a poor first quarter result.
The Heavy Duty Truck segment was up again in March with a total of 1,533 units delivered, up 5.9 percent, or 86 trucks, on March 2023. The first quarter result was almost as good, with 3,788 Heavy sales year-to-date, representing a 4.8 percent increase over the same period in 2023. That was a 173 Heavy truck sales increase over quarter one 2023.
In the Medium Duty segment, sales were solid in January and February, however March sales were down slightly on the third month 2023 results. A total of 653 Medium trucks were delivered in March, down 1.8 percent, or -12 units, over March 2023. To the end of the first quarter, Medium truck sales remain solid, with a total of 1,741 Medium Duty trucks delivered, up by 9.0 percent (143 trucks) over 2023 first quarter sales.
Light Duty truck sales (those trucks with a GVM between 3,500 kg and 8,000 kg) have performed very well for the past couple of years, setting a new sales record in 2022 then breaking that record in 2023. However, the Light truck segment has struggled in 2024, being noticeably the worst performing segment thus far in 2024. March saw sales in the Light Duty segment total 1,259 units, down 19.9 percent (-312 trucks) over March 2023. At the end of the first quarter of 2024, Light Duty sales are well behind that of the same period last year, down by 20.2 percent, -793 truck sales.
By contrast, Light Duty Van sales (vans with a GVM between 3,500 kg and 8,000 kg) have been down for the past few years, mainly due to supply chain issues out of Europe. This situation has normalised in 2024 and the Van segment is enjoying booming sales.
The Van segment set a new all-time sales record for the first three months of a year. A total of 1,686 vans were delivered in the first quarter of 2024, beating the previous record of 1,455 vans sold in quarter one of 2021. The quarter one 2024 sales were up a massive 27.4 percent (363 vans) over the same period last year. Looking at the March van sales in isolation, they were up 23.4 percent (115 vans) over the March 2023 result.
CEO of Truck Industry Council, the peak industry body for truck manufacturers and importers into Australia, Tony McMullan reflected, “The first three months of 2024 have brought near record new truck sales in Australia, with new sales records being set in both the Heavy Duty truck and the Light Duty van segments.”
“It is pleasing to witness that after record sales in 2022 and 2023, the market continues to hold up well for the third consecutive year. Let us hope that this trend continues for the rest of the year and beyond. Hopefully leading to a decrease in the average age of the Australian truck fleet.” Mr McMullan concluded.
Australian truck market comment pieces are issued quarterly by the Truck Industry Council (TIC), owner and compiler of the official T-Markii truck market sales database.
