Act Research reports that for the month of July, 25,000 new Classes 5-8 vehicle orders were booked. Of those, Class 8 garnered 10,500 orders and for Classes 5-7, 14,500 orders were placed. Note that these numbers are preliminary. Final July numbers will be published in mid-August.

“In line with the two-speed U.S. economy of healthy consumers and weak industrial activity, the two-speed commercial vehicle story continued to unfold in July,” said Kenny Vieth, ACT’s President & Senior Analyst. “Medium duty orders remained on trend, while Class 8 orders continued to soften.” Vieth said that some of the softness is related to seasonality; through the course of the year, the July-September period marks the low ebb for Classes 5-8 vehicle orders. “Seasonally adjusted, the aggregate order volume for Classes 5-8 was 29,200; however, July’s demand was nevertheless the lowest monthly volume, actual or seasonally adjusted, since September 2010.”

ACT is the recognized leading publisher of new and used commercial vehicle (CV) industry data, market analysis and forecasting services for the North American market, as well as the China CV market. ACT’s CV services are used by all major North American truck and trailer manufacturers and their suppliers, as well as the banking and investment community.