August Class 8 net orders beat expectations, and climbed 36% over July, according to preliminary data compiled by FTR.
The firm said that orders reached 14,000 units, up from July’s 10,400. Still, the numbers represent the weakest August since 2010 and are down 35% from August 2015. Annualized totals for the past 12 months equate to 206,000 units.
“There is nothing unusual about the order numbers in August,” said Don Ake, vice president of commercial vehicles. “We expected orders to average around 12,000 per month in the July-August period and taken as a whole, they did. There were less cancellations in August, making the month look a little better than July. July will be the lowest order month of the year, which is typical. Market conditions did not deteriorate nor improve in August.”
Final data for August will be available from FTR later in the month as part of its North American Commercial Truck & Trailer Outlook service.
