Class 8 net orders were just under 20,300 units in June, while Classes 5-7 posted 15,500 net orders. These results were published in the latest State of the Industry report, recently released by ACT Research Co. (ACT). The report covers Classes 5 through 8 vehicles for the North American market.

Kenny Vieth, ACT’s President and Senior Analyst, noted that, after a stumble at the start of the year, a modest economic rebound was seen in the April-June timeframe and that the NA Class 8 market is playing out largely as anticipated. He added, “With the backlog filling early in 2015, Class 8 production and sales metrics continued to gain momentum in June, growing 19% and 17% YTD, respectively.” According to Vieth, “Based on ACT’s expectations for orders and build over the next three months, backlogs will continue to fall before reversing course in October.”

Concerning medium duty, Vieth said, “June’s soft, worst-since-last-June net orders need to be put in some context: In the preceding 9 months, MD orders averaged 19,800 units/mo.” He continued, “Impacting orders, ~10% of the Classes 6-7 market is out of commission for several months as a factory is moved.”