Orders for Commercial Vehicles Fell in May

North American orders in May for new Class 8 trucks fell 31% year-over-year as overcapacity, low late-model used-truck values and weak freight volumes continued to restrain demand, ACT Research Co. reported.

ACT put the heavy-duty orders at 14,300, citing preliminary data. It said it will publish final numbers for May in mid-June.

Steve Tam, ACT’s vice president, commercial vehicle sector, said May 2015 was a “moderately tough” comparable.

“Positively, May’s [Class 8] orders, true to season expectations, bested April, coming in 4% higher,” Tam said.

Also, orders for medium-duty vehicles (Classes 5-7) slowed to their lowest level since July 2014, dropping 18% year-over-year to 17,100 vehicles, ACT said.

Tam said medium-duty orders, however, were up 4% year-to-date compared with the 2015 period.

“With order rates still soft, we expect OEMs to start taking additional production cuts in the second half of the year, as recently seen at Volvo,” David Leiker and analysts with Robert W. Baird & Co. wrote in an investor note June 2. 

“Dealer inventories of Class 8 trucks remains bloated, so the only truck orders now are mainly for replacement purposes, with preferred specifications. Backlogs will continue to fall, they are now below 2014 levels for May,” said Don Ake, FTR’s vice president of commercial vehicles.