March Class 8 orders down nearly 6%

ACT Research’s latest State of the Industry: NA Classes 5-8 report – a monthly look at the current production, sales and general state of the on-road heavy- and medium-duty commercial vehicle markets in North America – showed final North American Class 8 net orders declining 5.9% year over year in March to 16,500 units. Tractor orders remained essentially flat in March at 12,200 units (+0.9%), while vocational truck orders dropped 21% year over year to 4,200 units.

While uncertainty and a weak seasonal period have made forecasting more challenging, Carter Vieth, research analyst at ACT Research, pointed out that order cancellations are at a 20-month high, which “may indicate customers are pulling back on orders given the increasingly pessimistic outlook.”

“Trump’s takeover of the CHIPS Act funding, freezing funs related to the IRA and IIJA Acts and the review of EPA’27 have taken tailwinds out of our forecast coming into 2025,” he added.

On the medium-duty side, total Classes 5-7 orders declined 33% year over year to 18,600 units. Vieth noted that medium-duty new orders have slowed in the past four months based on “bloated inventories” and a weaker economic outlook.