Final North American Class 8 net orders totaled 16,500 units in March, down 5.9% y/y, as published in ACT Research’s latest State of the Industry: NA Classes 5-8 report.

“While uncertainty and a weak seasonal period have made parsing the tea leaves more challenging, cancellations at a 20-month high may indicate customers are pulling back on orders given the increasingly pessimistic outlook,” said Carter Vieth, Research Analyst at ACT Research. “Tractor orders of 12.2k units this month were essentially flat y/y, up 0.9%. Vocational truck orders decreased 21% y/y, totaling 4.2k units.”

“Trump’s takeover of the CHIPS Act funding, freezing funds 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.

Regarding medium duty, Vieth added, “Total Classes 5-7 orders decreased 33% y/y to 18.6k units. MD orders have slowed through the past four months, as current bloated inventories and a weaker economic outlook weigh on new orders.”

ACT’s State of the Industry: NA Classes 5-8 report provides 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. More information can be found here.