The pullback in Class 8 order activity that began in April continued into July, according to ACT Research.


Order volumes and production activity have been fairly similar for the past few months, resulting in a plateauing of heavy duty order backlogs. This updated status of the North America commercial vehicle market was included in the State of the Industry report, recently released by ACT Research. The report covers Class 5 through 8 vehicles for the North American market.

"While July marked the low point for Class 8 orders for the year, industry seasonal patterns project this type of mid-year lull," said Kenny Vieth, president and senior analyst at ACT. "While the backlog has leveled out, the low level of cancellations signifies the quality of the orders in the backlog.

"Another positive for the industry is solid production activity with OEMs posting their highest daily build rate of this recovery cycle. Nevertheless, the recent events impacting the U.S. economy can't be ignored, and we will be closely observing order and build activity over the next couple of months," added Vieth.