Preliminary Class 8 truck total net orders for all major North American OEMs in May dropped 37 percent to 24,063 from historically high 37,922 units reported in April, FTR Associates said.

Despite the decline, orders were still 85 percent higher than prior-year levels, FTR and ACT Research reported. Also, orders received in the last six months project to an annualized 337,600, significantly above the same period a year ago.

“It was expected that orders would fall off from the almost 40,000-unit demand last month,” said Eric Starks, FTR president. “Order intake during the May-to-September time period typically slows as a majority of fleets generally place their orders for the current year in prior months. May’s decline in orders will have little near-term impact as the OEs already have sufficient orders in hand to fill their current production capacity.”

Steve Tam, ACT vice president-commercial vehicle sector, said, “May represents the seventh consecutive month of orders above the 24,000 unit level, a clear sign of elevated Class 8 demand.”