Preliminary North America Class 8 net order data show the industry booked 16,900 units in February, up a modest 5 percent from January, but down 58 percent from year-ago February, Act Research reported.

“February marks the third consecutive month of orders meaningfully below the current rate of build. Over that three-month period, Class 8 orders have been booked at a 194,000 SAAR,” said Kenny Vieth, ACT’s President and Senior Analyst. “Even though orders are well off their year-ago highs, a trend that is expected to persist through most of this year, we continue to believe that current order weakness has more to do with the very large Class 8 backlog and orders already booked than with the current erosion of the truck-to-freight supply-demand balance.”

Note that these numbers are preliminary. Complete industry data for February, including final order numbers, will be published by ACT Research in mid-March.