December Class 8 truck orders head up, says ACT

New orders for Class 8 trucks in December were solid, according to data issued this week by ACT Research, a provider of data and analysis for trucks and other commercial vehicles.

“Demand for Class 8 units ended 2016 on a positive note with 21,400 units booked,” said Kenny Vieth, ACT’s President and Senior Analyst. “December was the only month in 2016 in which orders rose above 20,000 units. However, after the streak of negative year-over-year order comparisons was snapped in November at 22-months, the year/year comparison turned negative again, with orders falling 24% from last December.”

Stifel analyst Mike Baudendistel commented in a research note that the total Class 8 orders for the fall order season dipped 23 percent annually to 54,747 units.

“That 23% decline this fall indicates orders will need to improve on a seasonally-adjusted basis throughout 2017 for production to meet our expectation of a 13% decline this year,” he wrote in a research note. “We believe that is a reasonable situation for the industry to find itself in at the end of fall, with backlogs low (reducing the incentive to secure a production slot early), inventory representing less of a headwind this year (though still somewhat elevated), and freight markets having been weak in recent months. As such, we are maintaining our 2017 Class 8 production estimate of 200,000 units, slightly below ACT Research’s estimate of roughly 205,000 units.”