According to ACT Research’s recently released Transportation Digest, the heavy-duty truck market exploded off the starting blocks at the beginning of the year, with order numbers that built on 2020’s strong close.

“The massive supply-demand imbalance between freight and drivers in the second half of 2020 lit commercial vehicle demand on fire beginning in the fourth quarter of last year. At the start of 2021, commercial vehicle demand is hot,” Kenny Vieth, president and senior analyst for ACT Research, said. “As an illustration, over the past four months ending January, Class 8 backlogs doubled. That period included best and third-best ever orders for Class 8 tractors in November and December.

“While we are confident that the conditions driving demand should remain in place, what will dictate the trajectory of build, retail sales and our forecasts will be the industry’s ability to navigate around both traditional and non-traditional supply-chain constraints.”