Truck Orders Remain Steady in March, Exceed 22,000 for Month
Preliminary Class 8 net orders for March were 22,800 units, slightly above expectations and much higher than a year ago for the third consecutive month, research company FTR reported.
ACT Research Co. pegged the North American total at 23,100, compared with 16,233 a year earlier.
March orders were up 41% year-over-year, backlogs now are close to where they were a year ago, and production rates are expected to increase significantly beginning with March totals, FTR said. Final data will be available by the end of the month.
“This is a reserved, contained market upswing,” Don Ake, FTR’s vice president of commercial vehicle, said in a statement. “It means it is easier for the [truck makers] to increase builds gradually, and prices don’t fluctuate as much. It provides some market stability. It is good for the industry and a good sign for the economy in the second half of the year.”
FTR forecasts orders to stay close to this level through May, similar in trend to 2013. Class 8 orders for the past six months now annualize to 243,000, consistent with expected future build rates.
“Against easy comps, March Class 8 orders were up 42% compared to March 2016,” ACT President Kenny Vieth said in a statement. “On a seasonally adjusted basis, orders were booked at a 267,000 unit SAAR in the first quarter.”
Also, “Since March is a seasonally strong order month, seasonal adjustment docks the month’s order volume to 22,200 units,” Vieth saif.
Analyst Neil Frohnapple with Longbow Research wrote in a March note to investors that truck maker Paccar Inc. recently raised its Class 8 daily build rate by 15-20% in its U.S. factories.
That bump supports Paccar’s global new-truck delivery outlook for the first quarter of 2017 as slightly higher compared with the fourth quarter of 2016, Frohnapple said.
Paccar did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
