The third quarter is historically the weakest order period of the year and July is the weakest month. July Class 8 orders fell to just under 17,600 units, down 7% month-over-month, but up 36% compared to year-ago July.

Medium-duty orders fell 4% month-over-month to 14,970 units. This updated status of the North America commercial vehicle market was included in the State of the Industry report, recently released by ACT Research Co. The report covers Classes 5 through 8 vehicles for the North American market.

“New orders continue to come from truckers who have a genuine need for near-term deliveries,” said Kenny Vieth, ACT’s president and senior analyst. “As such, cancellation activity remained at extremely low levels again in July,” he added.

Vieth also said that trucker profit margins were at their highest level since Q4’05 in the second quarter, which hints at a strong finish to 2013.

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