For the month of March, 37,700 new Class 5-8 vehicle orders were booked. Class 8 garnered 16,000 orders, and for Classes 5-7, 21,700 orders were placed. Note that these numbers are preliminary. Final March numbers will be published in mid-April.
โMD and HD demand, as mirrored by new order activity, remain on divergent paths that are tracking their niches in the broader economy,โ said Kenny Vieth, ACTโs president and senior analyst. โIn the case of MD demand, a decent jobs market and rising incomes continue to support discretionary spending and improved housing activity, but ongoing weakness in the freight-rich manufacturing sector and excessive inventories in the broader economy continue to weigh on new HD demand.โ
Class 8 orders were down 37 percent from this time last year and 12 percent from February. Medium duty truck orders, however, are slowly increasing with a 4 percent increase from 2015. More robust orders in Classes 5-7 began last September.
