Strong Preliminary Class 8 Net Orders for December

FTR Associates has released preliminary data showing December Class 8 truck total net orders for all major North American OEM’s at 25,247 units, only a slight 3 percent drop from the strong November activity. Net order activity for the final quarter of 2010 annualized to 280,324 units. The figure includes U.S., Canada, Mexico and Exports.

Eric Starks, president of FTR, says, “Order activity for December came in on the high side of expectations and supports our view that production and sales will continue to accelerate during 2011.”  Starks continues, “Freight demand will need to remain solid in early 2011 to maintain this strong order activity for Class 8 units.  Additionally, other issues like the growing driver shortage as the economy improves do place a drag on fleets’ ability to add capacity.  The current order activity is primarily for units to replace aging trucks.”