Trucking news: ACT and FTR report November Class 8 preliminary orders are down

Data published by ACT Research, a provider of data and analysis for trucks and other commercial vehicles, and freight transportation forecasting firm and consultancy FTR Associates indicated that preliminary data for Class 8 trucks in November is down from October.

ACT reported that preliminary net orders in November for heavy-duty Class 8 vehicles in North American markets will be around 20,700, which would represent about a 25 percent decline from October.

ACT said a final order tally for May would come in later this month. The firm added that preliminary net order numbers are subject to revision and are typically accurate to within 5 percent plus or minus.

ACT Vice President, Commercial Sector, Steve Tam commented in a statement that ACT contends there was a pull-forward of demand in October to counteract the impact
of price increases for the new model year.

“The underlying fundamentals in the heavy truck market remain healthy,” he said.

FTR’s preliminary November data was in line with ACT’s, with preliminary Class 8 truck total net orders for all major North American OEM’s down 27 percent from October to 20,400 units, coupled with a 22 percent annual decline, marking the first time in a year there has been an annual decline. FTR pointed out that November is also down from the cumulative three-month average for August, September, and October of 24,100 units per month. 

“Class 8 orders were very disappointing for November and came in substantially below expectations,” said FTR President Eric Starks in a statement. “November is normally a very good order month as it lies during what is typically the strong order period of the year. What is most troubling about the November number is that it is back down to levels last seen during the summer when we normally see slow order activity. However, one month does not tell us much about the fundamentals in the market and this does not change our outlook for 2012. We will be monitoring the situation closely over the next several months as December and January are normally strong order months.”