Preliminary North America Class 8 net order data show the industry booked 27,900 units in November, down 36% sequentially from October, but only 15% lower from year-ago November. Note that these numbers are preliminary. Complete industry data for November, including final order numbers, will be published by ACT in mid-December.

“Through year-to-date November, Class 8 orders have totaled 468,600 units, an average monthly order intake of 42,600 units per month,” said Steve Tam, ACT’s vice president. “November typically has a slightly above average order seasonal factor, and as such, actual data is moderately lower when seasonally adjusted. Seasonal adjustment drops November’s order intake to 26,800 units, down 29% from October.”

About medium duty orders, Tam commented, “Disaggregation of the medium and heavy-duty markets reveals that medium-duty order activity perpetuated its trend-like bias in November, with orders for 25,100 vehicles besting short and long-run averages.” He added, “Over the course of the past six and twelve months, medium-duty orders have averaged 24,000 and 24,900, respectively.”