Navistar International (Chicago, Illinois) reported a loss of USD $35 million for its first quarter of fiscal 2001, a $105 million swing from an operating profit of $70 million during the same period of 2000.

Amidst rapidly declining North American heavy truck sales, the company again revised downward its forecasts for 2001 industry-wide sales.

"While we have made no fundamental changes in the way we do business and we look for further productivity improvements in our core businesses, first quarter results were influenced by challenges that are beyond our industry," said Navistar's Chairman John Horne. "Extremely low used truck values, record high diesel fuel prices and high interest rates caused many truck buyers to defer purchased. Some of the leading indicators have shown some improvement, however we don't see any evidence yet of an upturn."

Navistar said their newest North American truck sales forecasts reflect another significant reduction from previous forecasts. As recently as December, Navistar expected sales to be off somewhat, down to 322,000 units. However, their latest North American sales forecast takes even that number down significantly, to only 280,000 total units for 2001.

School bus sales are projected at 28,000 units, medium truck sales are expected to hold steady for 2001 at 108,000 units. The hardest hit will be Class 7 and Class 8 heavy trucks (over 26,001 GVWR), expected to be down sharply to 144,000 units. Other heavy truck manufacturers have predicted volume will drop even lower, below 130,000 units. In 2000, North American heavy truck sales were 240,000 units.

In early January, during the Brussels International Commercial Vehicles Show, other heavy truckmakers expressed their concerns and predictions for the 2001 North American market.