Class 8 orders ended the year with the second best order month in six years as Class 8 net orders rose to 30,293 units. When seasonally adjusted, December’s orders were the best since April and resumed the stronger order trend that has been observed since August.

Meanwhile, demand for medium-duty vehicles remained a study in consistency: There were only 3,000 units separating the best and worst order months of 201, with December falling in the middle of the range. This updated status of the North America commercial vehicle market was included in the State of the Industry report, recently released by ACT Research Co. (ACT). The report covers Class 5 through 8 vehicles for the North American market.

“We think November’s drop in Class 8 orders was circumstantial, rather than fundamentally derived,” said Kenny Vieth, president and senior analyst at ACT. “Part of the order drop in November was a significant spike in cancellations. To that end, part of December’s net order strength was a plunge in cancellations to their second lowest level in 2011,” he added.

ACT is the leading publisher of new and used commercial vehicle (CV) industry data, market analysis and forecasting services for the North American market, as well as the U.S. tractor trailer market and the China CV market. ACT’s CV
services are used by all major North American truck and trailer manufacturers and their suppliers, and worldwide banking and investment companies. For more information on ACT, please visit http://www.actresearch.net.