Trucking news: ACT reports August Class 8 preliminary orders show improvement

Data from ACT Research, a provider of data and analysis for trucks and other commercial vehicles, released this week indicated that commercial vehicle net orders saw improvement in August.

According to its preliminary reading of the North American medium and heavy-duty vehicle markets, North American Class 8 orders are projected to hit 20,800 units.

This output represents a 10 percent improvement over July’s 18,700 orders and a 40 percent improvement over July 2010’s 12,400 orders.

ACT President and Senior Analyst Kenny Vieth said that while waiting for these preliminary orders to come in ACT had some early concerns about how they would turn out due to political turmoil and faltering consumer confidence numbers, among other things.

“We were a little bit leery as to how things would look,” said Vieth. “July and August represent the two weakest order months of the year. The fact that we approached 21,000 orders in August, given the backdrop of [negative] headlines made these numbers a pleasant surprise.”

The underlying fundamentals in the marketplace remain strong, said Vieth, explaining that there is more freight relative to trucks on the road. Pricing remains healthy, and that was reflected in the second quarter as carriers reported strong profit margins.

Another factor influencing higher orders is that used equipment prices are continuing to rise, said Vieth.

“There is enough freight out there and truckers are making money hauling that freight,” he said.  “Used asset evaluations are strong so it is facilitating a continued ability to replace older trucks with newer trucks.

Final July order numbers are expected by Friday, September 16.