Soft Class 8 June, Classes 5-7 weak

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

Classes 5-7 net orders also fell below trend, but the decline was expected, as medium-duty activity typically tapers off during the summer months.

The final numbers, which will be released mid-July, will approach 16,500 units for heavy duty Class 8 trucks and 12,900 for medium duty Classes 5-7 vehicles. The preliminary net order numbers are typically accurate to within 5% of actual.

“The explanation for the soft patch remains of the ‘death by a thousand cuts’ variety,” said Kenny Vieth, president and senior analyst, ACT Research.

“As has been the case since late February/early March, the issue appears to boil down to credit-buying truckers’ confidence in the economy relative to the risk of taking out a sizeable loan to buy a truck. To that end, risk, economic or political, domestic or global, remains high, and memories of 2009 are still fresh.”