This year’s run of record-breaking sales for the New Zealand heavy truck market came to an end in June.

After five straight months of alltime bests, the market cooled – dropping to 402 registrations compared to May’s 518, and last year’s benchmark June tally of 510.

However, this year’s string of unprecedented monthly sales still carried the 2019 first-half registrations total to a new record, with 2621 sales in the overall market (4.5 tonnes GVM and above).

Total sales for the first half were 3.9% up on 2018’s 2518 registrations at the same point – a modest increase compared to the 10% to 40% gains common since 2010 (when the first-half total was just 720).

The half-year alltime best was achieved despite the fact that Q2’s total sales were slightly below those in the second quarter last year – 1320 compared to 1333 in 2018.

The trailer market, with 107 June registrations, was significantly down on the same month last year, when the market clocked a record 164 sales. It was also a sharp contrast to the 156 registrations in May this year.

Trailer registrations for Q2 (at 389) and the first six months of 2019 (760) also fell well short of last year’s alltime records – with 482 and 866 registrations respectively. Those figures represent a 19% and a 12% drop respectively – while the June total this year was 34.7% down on the same month last year.

The overall truck market in June was once again led by Isuzu (89), with FUSO (69) second – pushing their 2019 totals out to 603 and 417 respectively.

Hino (372/59) was again third (for the month and the year), while Volvo (172/13) stayed fourth and Mercedes-Benz (146/25) moved into fifth, ahead of Kenworth (144/20). UD (132/21) moved ahead of DAF (126/14), while both Iveco (122/20) and Scania (90/27) held their YTD places. 

In the 3.5-4.5t GVM crossover segment, Fiat reached 121 YTD by adding 13 for the month (well behind its 157 YTD at the same point last year), followed by Mercedes-Benz (36/6) and Ford (19/2). 

In the 4.5-7.5t category, FUSO (177/38) strengthened its lead, ahead of Isuzu (155/28), Iveco (74/11), Hino (66/5), Mercedes-Benz (57/6), Foton (28/2) and Volkswagen (22/7).

Isuzu (256/35) continued to dominate the 7.5-15t segment, with Hino (127/19) still second and FUSO (94/11) third. A long way behind were UD (24/6), Iveco (19/1), Foton (11/3), Mercedes-Benz (8/2) and Hyundai (6/2). 

In the 15-20.5t segment, Hino (40/9) led UD (29/3), FUSO (26/4), Isuzu (16/3), Scania (10/0) and Sinotruk (7/1).

In the small 20.5-23t segment, Hino (20/6) remained at the top, with FUSO (9/0) joined in equal-second place by UD (9/3), with Isuzu (4/0) in fourth. 

In the 23t to maximum GVM premium division, Isuzu (172/23) ousted Volvo from the YTD No. 1 spot....albeit by just one sale. Volvo registered 13 for the month.

Kenworth (144/20) retained third YTD, while DAF (119/14) was joined in fourth-equal position by Hino (119/20). FUSO (111/16) remained sixth, but Scania – registering 27 trucks in June to claim the No. 1 position for the month – jumped from 10th to seventh YTD, with 79 sales. 

Mercedes-Benz (78/17) lost one spot, UD (70/9) dropped two and MAN (58/6) was down one.

In the trailer market, Patchell (91/15) increased its YTD lead over second-placed Roadmaster (68/7), while Fruehauf (60/14) moved up from sixth to third.

MTE (57/8) retained fourth position, while Domett (56/12) improved two spots to fifth, ahead of TMC (55/5) – down from third – and Transport Trailers (55/8), sharing sixth-equal place. TES (30/10), Transfleet (26/3) and Jackson (23/3) completed the YTD top 10.