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Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Class 8 Orders Impacted by Backlog

FTR releases preliminary Class 8 net orders for October at 13,800 units. The reported net order number for the month was negatively impacted by a significant cleanup of long-term, excess orders by one manufacturer. With this backlog adjustment factored out, net orders would have been closer to approximately 21,300 units, much above industry expectations and would have been the best monthly order activity since December 2015. The reported 13,800-unit net number was similar to September totals and brings the past 12 months of orders to 188,000 units.

“The adjusted number of 21,300 was fuelled by the big fleets placing their requirement orders for the first half of 2017. This indicates the freight markets are stabilizing and the fleets are confident enough to replace older trucks,” said Don Ake, vice president of commercial vehicles, FTR. “FTR expects medium-sized and smaller fleets to wait until after the election to place most of their initial 2017 orders. Once that uncertainty has been lifted, it should help the equipment markets and the general economy. Monthly orders will likely hover around the 20,000-unit mark in November and December.”