Dec 14, 2011 10:20 AM

North America heavy GVW Class 8 commercial vehicle preliminary net orders for November 2011 surprised on the downside, coming in well below October actuals, as reported by ACT Research Co LLC.

The final numbers, which will be released mid-December, will approach 20,700 units for heavy-duty Class 8 trucks and 13,400 for medium Classes 5-7 vehicles. The preliminary net order numbers are typically accurate to within 5% of actual.

“We believe there was a pull-forward of demand in October to counteract the impact of price increases for the new model year,” said Steve Tam, ACT vice-president–commercial vehicle sector. “The underlying fundamentals in the heavy-truck market remain healthy. Classes 5-7 preliminary net orders continue to flow in a very narrow band. As a case in point, when seasonally adjusted and annualized, the Classes 5-7 net order matched the YTD average.”