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Kenworth Decline Trims Mexican March Class 8 Truck Output
Freightliner, International Output Rebounds Versus February
Key Takeaways:
- Mexico built 12,617 heavy-duty vehicles in March, down 6.6% from a year earlier, according to INEGI.
- Kenworth’s Mexicali plant accounted for most of the decline with a 54.2% year-over-year drop in output.
- First-quarter 2026 production fell 30.4% compared with the same period in 2025.
Truck and bus manufacturers built 12,617 heavy-duty vehicles in Mexico in March, a 6.6% decrease compared with 13,512 vehicles in the same period a year earlier, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI).
Class 8 truck manufacturing accounted for 95.9% of that total and 92% of the output was exported to the United States, INEGI data released April 13 shows.
The majority of the decline was due to production from Paccar unit Kenworth’s Mexicali plant more than halving. The company manufactured 748 trucks in March in Mexico, a 54.2% drop compared with the year-ago period’s 1,632 trucks. The Kirkland, Wash.-based OEM built 740 trucks in February and 789 in January, with each total falling more than 54%. Kenworth declined to comment April 13.
Paccar retrenched its manufacturing in Canada in recent months, with a third round of layoffs at the Sainte-Thérèse manufacturing plant in Quebec in late October.
U.S. Section 232 tariffs on imports of heavy- and medium-duty trucks and parts became effective Nov. 1, although precise details of the levies on Mexican and Canadian exports have yet to emerge. Unions at Sainte-Thérèse blamed tariffs for the job cuts at the plant.
Paccar was unique among U.S. Class 8 manufacturers in supporting introduction of the tariffs, as the company believes its aims of gaining market share are likely to be aided by the Trump administration’s trade policy goals.
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Meanwhile, March output at Mexican manufacturing plants owned by other U.S. Class 8 truck makers was steadier year over year and strengthened compared with earlier in the year.
Freightliner produced 8,366 trucks in March in Mexico, a 1.4% increase from 8,251 trucks in the year-ago period. In February, the company built 5,538 trucks in Mexico, a 31.9% year-over-year decrease from 8,131 in February 2025.
Similarly, International built 2,990 trucks in the most recent month, down 2.7% compared with 3,074 trucks in March 2025. International built 307 trucks in Mexico in February, down 91.2% year over from 1,631 a year earlier.
In the first quarter of 2026, 28,765 heavy-duty vehicles were produced, a decrease of 30.4% compared with 41,316 trucks and buses in the same period in 2025, INEGI data shows.
