December preliminary North America Class 8 truck net orders reached 26,500 units, falling by 15,000 units from November, according to ACT Research.

“After a strong and upside-surprising November, Class 8 orders surprised in the opposite direction in 2023’s last report,” Kenny Vieth, president and senior analyst at ACT, said. “With the largest seasonal factor of the year, seasonal adjustment pushes December’s intake sharply lower, to 20,900 units. The full-year 2023 Class 8 order tally fell 7.0% year-over-year to 278,500 units.

“Classes 5-7 net orders were an identical 26,500 units in December, up 53% against a very easy year-ago comp. Unlike Class 8, MD seasonality is modest in December, lowering the seasonally adjusted order tally to 25,200 units, up 4.6% from November, and the best month of the year on both a nominal and seasonally adjusted basis. For all of 2023, Classes 5-7 orders were 245,700 units.”