by Calculated Risk on 5/04/2021 02:46:00 PM

The following graph shows heavy truck sales since 1967 using data from the BEA. The dashed line is the April 2021 seasonally adjusted annual sales rate (SAAR).

Heavy truck sales really collapsed during the great recession, falling to a low of 180 thousand SAAR in May 2009.  Then heavy truck sales increased to a new all time high of 575 thousand SAAR in September 2019.

However heavy truck sales started declining in late 2019 due to lower oil prices.

Note: "Heavy trucks - trucks more than 14,000 pounds gross vehicle weight."


Click on graph for larger image.

Heavy truck sales really declined towards the end of March 2020 due to COVID-19 and the collapse in oil prices, falling to a low of 299 thousand SAAR in May 2020, but have since rebounded.

Heavy truck sales were at 499 thousand SAAR in April, down from 517 thousand SAAR in March, but up 46% from 390 thousand SAAR in March 2020.

The year-over-year comparison are easy for the next few months  because of the collapse in sales in the early months of the pandemic.