Preliminary Class 5-8 orders in August were 43,100 for a yearly total of 531,500 units, an improvement of 20% and 90,000 units compared to the preceding 12-month period, according to ACT.
“At 25,400 units, August marks the third consecutive month of atypically robust orders for Class 8 at a time of the year when orders are usually soft,” said Kenny Vieth, ACT’s President and Senior Analyst. “This ongoing strength is in line with continued reports of rising freight volumes and healthy freight rate gains for truckers. Seasonal adjustment pushes the month’s order volume to even higher,” he added.
August’s preliminary 17,700 NA Classes 5-7 net orders represented the best MD vehicle order volume since April.
“That volume represented an improvement of 12% from July, but was also the fourth consecutive miss compared to year-ago volumes, dropping 4% compared to August 2013,” said Vieth.