Trucking: Class 8 net orders rebound in December, says ACT Research

Coming off of November, which saw new orders for Class 8 trucks decline from October, data from ACT Research, a provider of data and analysis for trucks and other commercial vehicles, showed that December rebounded in impressive fashion, with the second best order month in six years.

December Class 8 net orders increased to 30,293 units, said ACT, adding that on a seasonally-adjusted basis December represents the best month since April 2011.

“We think November’s drop in Class 8 orders was circumstantial, rather than fundamentally derived,” said Kenny Vieth, president and senior analyst at ACT, in a statement. “Part of the order drop in November was a significant spike in cancellations. To that end, part of December’s net order strength was a plunge in cancellations to their second lowest level in 2011.”

The final tally for November was 20,603 new orders and was very close to its estimate at 20,603 orders. But even with this decline, it noted that the demand situation for Class 8 vehicles remains favorable.

In a recent interview with LM, Vieth said that even with a down November, his firm remained pretty bullish on the underlying demand trends.

He added that even a slight improvement in volume or demand could spur a decent uptick in orders, too.

When asked how things were trending out order-wise for the month of December, Vieth said that visibility into that was not clear at that time, although he noted that because of the 100 percent bonus depreciation allowance for capital goods deduction, which expired at the end of 2011, things pointed to a good retail sales month for trucks in December.