Net heavy-duty truck orders climb to first year-on-year gain since early '15

New orders for heavy-duty trucks, minus cancellations, rose in November, marking the first year-over-year monthly gain in 22 months, consultancy ACT Research said yesterday.

So-called net orders totaled 19,448 units, ACT said. New orders reached 21,108 units, with 1,660 units cancelled, according to the consultancy.

Net orders last month rose sequentially by 40 percent from October, which was plagued by a monthly cancellation level not seen since 1999, ACT said. Cancellation activity in November returned to normal trend levels, equal to 2 percent of the order backlog, said Jim Meil, a research principal and industry analyst.

Net orders for heavy-duty trucks are one of the metrics used to gauge freight demand, as fleets generally will not make commitments to expensive equipment unless their order books indicate that demand will support the investment.