Keep on truckin’ -- sort of

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Apparently, not everyone who was in the market for a new vehicle lately needed a push from ‘cash for clunkers.’

Net orders for heavy-duty Class 8 commercial vehicles — semi-trucks to the uninitiated — were the highest since last November, TodaysTrucking.com reported today, citing the latest industry stats from ACT Research.

They were still down 38% from a year ago, but any sign of improvement is welcome in the trucking industry these days.

“It’s hard to get excited about order numbers that are very weak by historical standards, but still better than the extremely weak numbers of past months,” said Kenny Vieth, partner and senior analyst with ACT. “On a positive note, inventories continue to decline. When demand eventually comes around, inventories will not be an impediment to higher production.”

All three North American heavy-duty markets showed signs of improvement. Mexico posted an 11-month high in orders and Canada has come off lows posted early in the year, TodaysTrucking reported.

In the U.S., new orders were the highest of the year, but a rise in cancellations brought net orders back in line with the recent run rate.

Net orders for trucks in classes 5-7 — which include medium-duty trucks like the International DuraStar — were off a more troubling 51%. That drop, however, was largely due to order cancellations that followed General Motors’ decision to quit the segment.

-- Martin Zimmerman