Fifty-nine percent of August’s North American Class 8 orders are scheduled for build this year, and the fill rates are generally in line with historical averages. “Based on the build plans, Q4 was filled to 62% versus a historical fill rate of 69%,” said Tim Denoyer, ACT Research’s Vice President and Senior Analyst. He continued, “For Q1, the August-ending build plan fill was 29%, just ahead of the 27% fill rate average of the past 10 years.”

The North America medium duty build rate slowed again in August. Month over month, Classes 5-7 production declined 7%. “Medium duty production was still up 23% year over year,” noted Denoyer. He continued, “This is ahead of the year-to-date production growth rate of 4%, but set to slow into year-end.”