Class 8 commercial vehicles see 15 percent annual gain in August, says ACT

Data published by ACT Research, a provider of data and analysis for trucks and other commercial vehicles, indicates that net orders of heavy-duty Class 8 commercial vehicles were up 15 percent year-over-year in August.

The firm said in its most recent edition of its State of the Industry: Classes 5-8 Vehicles that for the three months ended August 31 net orders of Class 8 vehicles came in at 40,033—a 42 percent annual gain.

ACT Vice President Commercial Sector Steve Tam said in a statement that the “summer months tend to be seasonally low order months for Class 8 vehicles, but this summer has seen a stabilization of orders at a more material rate compared to the trough of 2009.

Tam added that net orders were particularly strong in Mexico, likely due to increases manufacturing and trade, as well as possibly benefiting from some “re-shoring” of manufacturing that previously occurred abroad.

This news follows a recent ACT release— ACT North American Commercial Vehicle Outlook— which is calling for full-year production of Class 8 vehicles to be up 26 percent—at roughly 150,000 vehicles—over 2009, with solid growth into 2011, too. ACT also said that commercial trailer production will increase by 47 percent this year.

“Based on our modeling and anecdotal evidence from truckers, it seems like the supply-demand imbalance, which has been tilted away from truckers for the last four years, has gone back to truckers…and we don’t see that abating,” said Ken Vieth, ACT partner and senior analyst, in an interview.

At current levels, Vieth said truck and trailer production is positioned to ramp up as fast as demand is. And with capacity still tight and current fleets aging in conjunction with a potential stretch of increased truckload earnings there could be some staying power for future truck production, he said.