Preliminary data on August Class 8 truck net orders from FTR Associates is showing a healthy 11 percent improvement over July.
So far, August orders are sitting at 19,178 units. Compared to a year ago, that's a 21 percent increase.
Still, FTR said, August was the third consecutive month that saw orders sitting below 20,000 units, resulting in annualized orders for the first six months of 2013 to drop to 244,400 units.
August orders were in line with FTR's expectation, said Eric Starks, FTR's president. "While the numbers are significantly better than what we saw at this time last year, they are still noticeably below the build levels posted in July."
Build numbers in July were 22,105 units, and with August orders likely only reaching 19, 200, it'll be more than likely that "production levels will ease back over the next few months to be more in line with the incoming order rates that have only averaged 18,300 units over the last three months," Starks explained.
"The September order number will be the one to watch and will tell us if we can expect to see a pickup later in the fourth quarter. If the numbers stay near current levels then we will likely see a flat fourth quarter with regards to production."
