Heavy & Medium Duty Orders Close Year with Three Month High in December

The December volume represents an 11% improvement from November and a 35% improvement from December 2016.

Preliminary NA Class 8 order volume remained elevated, climbing 4,800 units from November to 37,500 units in December. “The last month of 2017 was the best monthly intake since December 2014,” said Kenny Vieth, ACT’s President and Senior Analyst. He continued, “December’s volume represents a sequential improvement of 15%, and a year-over-year gain of 76%.”Medium duty Classes 5-7 orders were steady in December, although mixed. “Preliminary data indicate that Classes 5-7 net orders inched higher from November to 21,300 units. However, on a year-over-year basis, orders dropped 3.7%,” said Vieth.December is usually a strong month for orders, but the holidays constrain production. Based on the spread between preliminary December orders and the Build Plans from last month’s State of the Industry: NA Classes 5-8 Vehicles report, the MD backlog likely grew by around 7,500 units while the Class 8 backlog should see another 18,500 units added. Note that the data never quite align month to month, so there may be some variability when final data is collected.