Reports Friday from FTR and ACT Research say January Class 8 net orders are following a steady trend over the past few months.
FTR reports January Class 8 net orders were a solid 21,600 units; ACT Research says the month clocked in with 22,200 units—a 14 month high.
January’s total orders were 20 percent better than January 2016. After a steady decline in order rates and backlog throughout most of 2016, the market righted itself in Q4, FTR says. Class 8 orders for the past three months now annualize to 248,000 units, with backlogs expected to rise for the third straight month.
“The order increase will help to boost Q1 build rates and is more good news for the Class 8 market. It is unusual for January orders to be higher than any of the preceding Q4 months,” says Don Ake, vice president of commercial vehicles at FTR. “This indicates fleets are more confident in market conditions than they were four months ago. OEMs should begin to fill in their production schedules and now February builds look to be much better than previous months.”
ACR President and Senior Analyst Kenny Vieth adds, “This is the time of year when big fleets are in the market scheduling replacement orders for the coming year. Rising 21 percent versus a year-ago January, this is only the second positive year-over-year comparison in 23-months.”
ACT adds that North American Classes 5-7 orders hit an eleven-month high in January, rising 32 percent year-over-year to 23,000 units.
“As the year’s opening stanza is typically one of the weakest in terms of order activity, seasonal adjustment provides a strong boost, pushing the adjusted net order volume to 24,450 units,” says Vieth.“To put that number into context, January’s seasonally adjusted medium-duty net order total was the best monthly reading in nine years, or since February 2008.”
