Truck Orders Drop 28% in September
Truck orders for September fell 28% year-over-year, continuing a steady decline during 2016, ACT Research reported.
The consulting firm’s September total of 13,900 units during a traditionally slow season for orders was a 2% sequential decline from August.
“This level of order intake is in line with how we see the industry performing,” ACT Vice President Steve Tam told Transport Topics. “We expect to see a modest uptake in the fourth quarter, probably to around 19,000 units.
Over the first nine months of 2016, truck orders on a year-over-year basis have slumped by an average of nearly 40%, including the 58% drop in July.
“It is tough to base estimates for future production on order levels in the slow summer months, even after attempting to adjust for seasonality,” Stifel Nicolaus analyst Michael Baudendistel wrote in a report, “Recent data continue to indicate there is more risk to the downside than the upside for production estimates in 2016 and beyond.”
His report noted that orders have totaled only 176,000 units on a seasonally adjusted annual basis.
