North American heavy truck orders fell 28% in June to 16,500, the sixth consecutive year-over-year decline, reflecting a seasonal slowdown and continued caution by potential buyers, ACT Research reported.
Orders also fell on a month-to-month basis, slipping from 18,000 in May.
“The explanation for the soft patch remains of the ‘death by a thousand cuts’ variety,” said Kenny Vieth, president of ACT.
“As has been the case since late February/early March, the issue appears to boil down to credit-buying truckers’ confidence in the economy, relative to the risk of taking out a sizeable loan to buy a truck. To that end, risk, economic or political, domestic or global, remains high, and memories of 2009 are still fresh,” he said.
Orders for Classes 5-7 equipment dropped to 12,900 vehicles from 14,600 units.