Jan 18, 2011 3:21 PM

FTR Associates has released preliminary data showing December Class 8 truck total net orders for all major North American OEMs at 25,247 units, only a slight 3% drop from the strong November activity. Net order activity for the final quarter of 2010 annualized to 280,324 units. The figure includes United States, Canada, Mexico, and exports.

Eric Starks, president of FTR, said, “Order activity for December came in on the high side of expectations and supports our view that production and sales will continue to accelerate during 2011. Freight demand will need to remain solid in early 2011 to maintain this strong order activity for Class 8 units. Additionally, other issues like the growing driver shortage as the economy improves do place a drag on fleets’ ability to add capacity. The current order activity is primarily for units to replace aging trucks.”

Final data for December will be available from FTR later in January as part of its North American Commercial Truck & Trailer Outlook service. Contact FTR Associates at ftr@ftrassociates.com or 1-888-988-1699 ext 1 for more details.