Local Cummins plant operating at capacity
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Production at Cummins' Jamestown Engine Plant is at capacity as demand is showing signs of life after the recent cyclical drop in demand the company weathered.
Jennifer Rumsey, Cummins chair and CEO, recently described conditions in the U.S. truck market in a call with investor analysts. The company has seen marked increases in demand in the third quarter of 2026 compared to the same period in 2025. At the same time, Cummins is working through some supply hiccups and challenges.
In North America, Cummins is maintaining its 2026 heavy-duty truck market forecast of 240,000 to 250,000 units. Engine business third quarter revenues were $3.1 billion, up 20% from a year ago primarily due to higher North America heavy- and medium-duty truck volumes more than offsetting weakness in the pickup truck market. For 2026, the company now expects revenue growth of 8% to 11% compared to its prior guidance of 9% to 14.
"So in the fourth quarter in Jamestown where we build the X15, we're really building at the capacity," Rumsey said. "We believe that this year's largely sold out. We're navigating some of our own supply challenges in components and axles in particular and really focused on trying to deliver to customers through the end of this year and into next. And so we anticipate there'll be continued underlying demand as we go into 2027. ...We believe the fundamentals have improved and the demand out there is real and will continue and are really just focused on trying to execute through the big step up we see."
James Hopkins, vice president of financial planning, capital management and investor relations, told analysts the majority of North America truck engine production in 2027 will be in the company's legacy platforms while the company is ready to begin rolling out its X15 engine line that is produced at the Jamestown Engine Plant. More than half of medium- and heavy-duty trucks on the road in the United States use Cummins engines, with company officials hopeful the X15N takes on prominence in the company's fuel-agnostic 15-liter engine platform. Cummins bills the X15N as the industry's first fuel-agnostic internal combustion engine platform that leverages a range of lower carbon fuel types. The fuel-agnostic architecture of the 15-liter platform utilizes a common base engine with cylinder heads and fuel systems specifically tailored for it to use carbon-free hydrogen or biogas with up to a 90% carbon reduction.
While production will largely be in legacy engine products, Rumsey touted the coming launch of the HELM platform as well.
"We also made important progress preparing for the upcoming launch of our HELM engine platforms," Rumsey said. "During the quarter, we completed our 2026 Forever Rising Tour, giving more than 500 customers and dealers the opportunity to experience our 2027 X15 engine alongside our X10 and natural gas X15N engines. Customer feedback has been very positive, particularly around performance, drivability, and confidence in Cummins reliability and support network. Hearing directly from customers is an important part of our launch preparations and reinforces our confidence in these products as we prepare to bring them to market together. These milestones demonstrate the progress we're making against our strategic priorities: strengthening our core business, expanding our capabilities, and investing in technologies and capacity needed to support our customers and drive long-term growth."
Hopkins said another 2027 priority will be found in power generation related to data center customers as Cummins brings new capacity online to meet its 2030 revenue targets. Strength in global power generation, particularly
from data center customers, contributed to record sales in Cummins' Power Systems segment in the third quarter of 2026. Demand for power generation for data centers is prompting strategic conversations to plan expectations with customers, including contractual commitments with hyperscaler customers that extend far into the future.
Earlier this year Cummins Inc. announced an agreement with Circe Energy to provide a series of high-powered, high-efficiency natural gas generator sets to support a scalable, behind-the-meter, prime power microgrid solution for Circe Energy’s High-Performance Computing data center in Texas. Deliveries are scheduled from 2026 through 2030 and will include Cummins’ HSK78 and QSK60 generator set platforms.
"We of course recognize the conversation that's happening in the U.S. right now around energy use and environmental impact of data centers," Rumsey said. "Our focus remains on meeting our customers' demands. And what I can tell you is those demands continue to grow. Our order intake in the third quarter exceeded what we thought it would be. We continue to see exceptionally strong demand on our larger engine gen sets with orders extending out into the second half of 2028 as well as interest in the next size down from those where we can't meet customer needs with the larger gen sets."