COLUMBUS, IN–Strong first-quarter orders drove Class-8  truck production to an 18-month high in May, trucking industry analysts ACT Research reports.

“Annualized, May’s production rate equals a full-year production of 263,000 units,” says Kenny Vieth, president and senior analyst at ACT Research, in a prepared statement.

ACT says Class 8 backlogs dropped nearly 7,000 units from April. 

“The second quarter of 2017 is effectively filled and of the units of production planned in Q3, only 18,200 build slots were empty,” says Vieth. “Q4 remains wide open, with nearly 70 percent of the quarter’s planned build slots remaining unfilled,” says Vieth.

Class 8 retail sales jumped in May to 21,200 units, falling just short of December’s sales volume as the best sales month in the past year, the company says.