November Preliminary Class 8 Net Orders ‘Very Disappointing’: FTR

Dec. 5, 2011
FTR Associates president Eric Starks said preliminary Class 8 net orders of 20,400 units for November for all major North American OEMs were “very disappointing”—a 22% decline from the same month of 2010 and a 27% decline from October

FTR Associates president Eric Starks said preliminary Class 8 net orders of 20,400 units for November for all major North American OEMs were “very disappointing”—a 22% decline from the same month of 2010 and a 27% decline from October.

Order activity for the prior three month period of August, September, and October averaged 24,100 units per month.

“Class 8 orders were very disappointing for November and came in substantially below expectations,” Starks said. “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.”

Final data for November will be available from FTR later in the month as part of its North American Commercial Truck & Trailer Outlook service. Contact FTR Associates at [email protected] or 1-888-988-1699 ext 1 for more details.