FTR Transportation Intelligence says operators are ordering new vehicles in such large volumes that production can’t keep up due to a lack of available components.
Net orders for North American Class 8 trucks totaled 41,800 units in June, a whopping 140 percent year-over-year increase and the most ever for the month, according to preliminary data from freight forecaster FTR Transportation Intelligence.
Don Ake, vice president of commercial vehicles at FTR, said that thanks to an “extremely tight” domestic trucking market, operators are ordering new vehicles in such large volumes that production can’t keep up due to a lack of available components.
The U.S. truck market has seen demand outstrip available capacity for several months now, causing prices to rise considerably as fleets struggled to grow in lock step with demand.
Total North American Class 8 orders have now surpassed 40,000 units in four of the past six months, reaching 411,000 units for the past 12 months.
“There is an enormous demand for trucks due to burgeoning freight growth and extremely tight industry capacity,” said Ake. “However, supply is severely constrained because OEM suppliers cannot provide the needed parts and components required to build more trucks fast enough. This bottleneck is causing fleets to get more orders in the backlog in hopes of getting more trucks as soon as they are available.
“Fleets are desperate for more equipment, but trucks are in short supply due to the supplier constraints,” he added. “This is creating a surge in orders as fleets react to this unusual situation. If OEMs were producing at capacity, the truck build this year could have been as high as 360,000 units. Orders for the last 12 months have now reached 411,000, so there are some excess orders in the backlog.”
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