North America medium and heavy duty GVW Classes 5-7 and Class 8 commercial vehicle preliminary net orders for February were down from January as reported by ACT Research Co., LLC (ACT). The final numbers, which will be released mid-March, will approach 22,500 units for heavy duty Class 8 trucks and 12,800 for medium duty Classes 5-7 vehicles. The preliminary net order numbers are typically accurate to within 5% of actual.

“February net orders were incrementally below expectations,” said Kenny Vieth, president and senior analyst, ACT Research. “However, healthy backlogs and strong orders over the previous four months continue to support our forecasts for 2012” he added.

In a related story, FTR Associates' numbers show Class 8 truck net orders of 22,243, which was 11% below January. This was the second month in a row of negative month-over-month and year-over-year comparisons.
Jonathan Starks, FTR's Director of Transportation Analysis, said demand for new trucks "remains robust as fleets continue to replace aging equipment."

Both companies say the drop in numbers is not something to worry about, but don't expect the same type of growth in 2012 we saw in 2011.