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Monday, June 16, 2025

Class 8 Orders Down

Class 8 booked 18,247 net orders in January, down 48 percent year over year, while Classes 5-7 net orders were flat year over year at 17,400 units. These results were published in the latest โ€œState of the Industryโ€ report, recently released by ACT Research Co. The report covers Classes 5 through 8 vehicles for the North American market.

โ€œThe data stream continues to trend negatively in regard to freight, capacity and freight rates,โ€ said Kenny Vieth, ACTโ€™s president and senior analyst. โ€œClass 8 demand started softening in mid-year 2015. However, the industry starts 2016 with the second largest January backlog in the past 10 years and the fourth biggest in the past 15.โ€

Vieth said that in spite of the large backlogs, production rates of Class 8 commercial vehicle are likely to moderate in coming months as the industry works through excessive inventories.
โ€œMeanwhile, medium duty is well positioned for continued modest growth into 2016,โ€ said Vieth.
He attributed this to healthy consumer balance sheets, rising new home construction, improved state and local government budgets, and an absence of overbuying.