October Class 8 orders jump

Preliminary October Class 8 orders show a 50% jump over September according to FTR Associates. The firm reported that net Class 8 truck orders for October reached 22, 760, up from September’s figure of around 15,000.

The October number is the highest since January and pushed the three-month annualized rate to 216,000, up from 174,400 at the end of September, FTR said.

“October net orders certainly came in at the high side of expectations and is the first month since very early in the years with good positive numbers,” said Eric Starks, FTR’s president. “We do however caution that the high October orders were primarily driven by activity at one OEM.  Before this order activity can be sustained, we need to see a more industry-wide rising tide.”

Final data will be available later this month.