Are US Class 8 sales finally on the move?

Class 8 heavy truck net orders in the US experienced an uptick in November, following weak, including cancellation heavy numbers reported for October, according to ACT Research based in Columbus, Indiana.

November new orders totalled 21,108 units, with the net at 19,440 units.

“In addition to rising 40 per cent from October, November marked the first positive year-on-year net order report in 22 months,” according to Jim Meil, ACT’s principal and industry nnalyst.

Meil continued, “After spiking to a volume not seen since 1999, cancellation activity returned to trend levels in November at 1,668 units and a cancellation rate of 2% of the backlog.”

Speaking about Classes 5, 6, and 7, Meil noted, “The consumer side of the economy remains solid, and overall there is consistency in demand.” He continued, “That is why we think the subpar orders results reported for Classes 5-7 in November were an outlier. Specifically, Classes 5-7 net orders were 17,372 (17,300 SA) – about 1,700 under the 2016 year-to-date average.”