A spike in June deliveries might paint a misleading picture of the months ahead with July retreating back to a downward trend
August 13, 2010
A Federal Government tax incentive in 2009, an influx of Asian-built vehicles heading south of the equator, and the lingering effects of the GFC hangover were the primary factors behind bus deliveries in June and July.
Looking at ABC’s June deliveries data, it appears boom times have returned, with operators taking delivery of 359 vehicles, up from 231 at the same time in 2009.
But the reason is simple. The spike resulted from orders placed before December 31 last year to qualify for a sliding scale of tax deductions – part of the Australian Government’s $2.7 billion business tax break.
Among the bigger orders placed before December and delivered in June were 33 Chinese-built BCIs sent to Murrays Coaches; 26 Volvos to the State Transit Authority (STA) in NSW; 25 Scanias to Bus Queensland; 19 Scanias to South Australia’s PTD; and 17 Volvos to Brisbane City Council.
The large order from Murrays saw BCI report 73 deliveries in June, to rank third behind Volvo (104) and Scania (80) on the chassis league table; and second behind Volgren (86) on the bodies ladder. Custom Coaches (66), Bustech (32) and Higer (28) also reported large deliveries in the month.
As soon as the financial year 2009-10 came to a close, though, the downward trend evident earlier in the year returned, with just 114 deliveries in July, down from 152 at the same time last year. So, like swallows, one spike might not make for a summer of sales and deliveries.
In contrast to the previous month, just one operator took double-digit deliveries – STA with 18 Volvos. This large order lifted the Swedish marque to number-one stop in the chassis market (39), ahead of Scania (25), BCI (18), Mercedes Benz (10) and Higer (6).
This order – along with sizeable deliveries to CDC (9), BCC (5), Grendas (5), Dysons (4) and Transperth (4) – kept Volgren at the top of the bodies table with 44 deliveries, followed by Custom Coaches (29) and BCI (18) .
August issue of ABC gives a comprehensive breakdown of June and July deliveries – a double data set – highlighting the delivery gap between financial year end and new one started.
ABC subscribers can now access the full data set here.