ACT Research: Truck orders hit soft patch

According to ACT Research Co. LLC, North American Class 8 truck preliminary net orders for June remain “soft” and orders for Class 5-7 trucks “also fell below trend.” However, the research firm stated that both declines were expected, “as medium-duty activity typically tapers off during the summer months.”

ACT said the final net order numbers, which will be released in mid-July, will approach 16,500  for Class 8 trucks and 12,900 for Class 5-7 vehicles. The preliminary net order numbers are typically accurate to within 5% of actual, the firm noted.

 “The explanation for the soft patch remains of the ‘death-by-a-thousand-cuts’ variety,” said Kenny Vieth, ACT’s president & senior analyst, ACT Research.

“As has been the case since late February/early March, the issue appears to boil down to credit-buying truckers’ confidence in the economy relative to the risk of taking out a sizeable loan to buy a truck,” he explained. “To that end, risk, economic or political, domestic or global, remains high, and memories of 2009 are still fresh.”

ACT is a publisher of new and used commercial vehicle (CV) industry data, market analysis and forecasting services for the North American market as well as the China CV market.