Soft September for Class 8 preliminary net orders

Oct. 9, 2012

North America heavy-duty GVW Class 8 commercial vehicle preliminary net orders for September, 2012, as reported by Americas Commercial Trucking (ACT) Research Co. LLC remained soft.

The final numbers, which will be released mid-October, will approach 15,600 units for heavy duty Class 8 trucks and 14,000 for medium duty Classes 5-7 vehicles. The preliminary net order numbers are typically accurate to within 5% of actual.

“Seasonally adjusted, Class 8 net orders were 17,900 units and Classes 5-7 net orders were 13,000 units. Continued weakness in Class 8 demand is in line with a wide swath of data that indicates a pullback in business investment, both domestic and international, ahead of the potential for bad political decisions at year’s end,” says Kenny Vieth, president and senior analyst, ACT Research.

Vieth says that softness continues to manifest itself in a number of freight related data series. He says that as the angst will not be resolved until after election day, there does not appear to be a near-term trigger for broadly stronger orders.

“Regarding Classes 5-7, orders continued at consistent levels,” says Vieth. “September’s volume was within 100 units of August and was the third consecutive month with a positive y/y comparison.”

For more information visit http://www.actresearch.net.