The trucking industry "is starting to see some light in the market with regard to the new engines," says International Truck Group President Steve Keate.

Incoming orders have dropped significantly since the rush to beat the Oct. 1 deadline for stricter emissions, but in a telephone press conference Tuesday, he told the truck trade press that the industry has seen some pickup in the last couple of months.
"As some of the anxiety goes away and as the facts come out, I think you'll see a continuous progression in sales of Class 8 trucks for the industry," he said.
In addition to the Cummins ISX engines, International is moving forward with the recently certified ISM products, which have been engineered into the 7600 Class 8 severe-service truck and the 8600 regional-haul Class 8 tractor. Emphasizing that International and Cummins worked together to optimize performance of the new truck and engine, Keate predicted that the engine will "do very, very well in the marketplace." He added that the ISM, like the ISX, will be covered under Cummins uptime guarantee program. In addition, International is offering a 5-year/500,000-mile extended warranty program.
"This is just another example of our strategy to work in a deeper way with suppliers, moving away from the old model of putting parts together and collaborating to optimize our supplier components," he said. "We continue to look for ways to leverage the relationship with Cummins.
"Our experience with the ISM has been very good," Keate said. "The good news is that because they are new vehicles, and because we knew the emissions change was coming, we were able to optimize design."
Truck builders are still assembling vehicles with engines built before Oct. 1 and probably won't clear all of those orders until mid-November. Keate said they'll likely cut production by some 60% after that but, at the lower level, they're booked through January.
The company announced last week that it will close its Chatham, Ont., truck plant early next summer and transfer production of its 9000i Series Class 8s to its Escobedo, Mexico, facility. "They'll do great work for us, as did the facility in Chatham," he said, adding that the decision to close Chatham was based on "sheer economics." Since late July, International and the United Auto Workers have been trying to hammer out a new contract covering some 7,100 production, maintenance, clerical and technical workers at several plants, parts centers and its technical center in Fort Wayne, Ind. Keate said he couldn't comment on details.
While new truck demand remains sluggish, the used truck market has been "the bright spot" over the past six months, he said. "Our inventory levels are at the lowest they've been in a number of years. With that higher level of demand we've seen an increase in pricing."