Final March Class 8 orders were down year over year, analysts reported Monday.
ACT says its final number totaled 16,500 units, which is down 5.9% year over year and mostly in line with its preliminary March estimate from earlier this month. Cancellations are also at a 20-month high.
"While uncertainty and a weak seasonal period have made parsing the tea leaves more challenging, cancellations at a 20-month high may indicate customers are pulling back on orders given the increasingly pessimistic outlook," says Carter Vieth, research analyst at ACT. "Tractor orders of 12,200 units this month were essentially flat year-over-year, up 0.9%. Vocational truck orders decreased 21% year-over-year, totaling 4,200 units."
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Medium-duty trucks were down 33% year over year to 18,600 units, slowing the last four months as high inventories and a weaker economic outlook weigh down new orders.
"Trump's takeover of the CHIPS Act funding, freezing funds related to the IRA and IIJA acts, and the review of EPA 2027 have taken tailwinds out of our forecast coming into 2025," Vieth says.
