Preliminary North America Class 8 net order data show the industry booked 27,900 units in November, down 36 percent sequentially from October, but only 15 percent lower from November 2017, ACT Research reported.
“Through year-to-date November, Class 8 orders have totaled 468,600 units, an average monthly order intake of 42,600 units per month,” said Steve Tam, ACT’s Vice President. “November typically has a slightly above average order seasonal factor, and as such, actual data is moderately lower when seasonally adjusted. Seasonal adjustment drops November's order intake to 26,800 units, down 29 percent from October.”
About medium duty orders, Tam commented, “Disaggregation of the medium and heavy duty markets reveals that medium duty order activity perpetuated its trend-like bias in November, with orders for 25,100 vehicles besting short and long-run averages.” He added, “Over the course of the past six and 12 months, medium duty orders have averaged 24,000 and 24,900, respectively.”
These numbers are preliminary. Complete industry data for November, including final order numbers, will be published by ACT in mid-December.