U.S. Trailer Orders Rise 35% in 2018

January 27, 2019 - Transportation analysis company ACT Research, Columbus, Indiana, reports that although December saw the volume of U.S. trailer orders slide for the third month in a row, it’s all relative when that low was nearly 28,000 orders.

ACT Research’s State of the Industry: U.S. Trailer Report explains that the long-running stream of trailer orders which started in the fall of 2017 and didn’t take the usual seasonal mid-year slide, is finally running out of steam, but not from lack of demand.

“While some fleets may have stepped back to better assess the market, indications are that there was still significant interest in placing orders,” said Frank Maly, director of CV Transportation Analysis and Research at ACT Research.

Maly continued, “However, it takes two to tango, and there were indications of OEM resistance to add to the record-setting backlog. Comments included an unwillingness to accept orders that would extend commitments deeper into 2019, or even into 2020, driven by a lack of long lead-time component pricing to support price quotes.” 

Additionally, Maly said, “The seasonal order softness has resulted in a bit of a dichotomy for

Frank Maly

backlogs. Orders were sufficient enough to push the year-end order board to just under 247,000 units not seasonally adjusted, but that’s much less improvement than normally occurs at year-end. And while we have a couple of different ways to measure it, the method isn’t as important as is the fact that the industry is already committed through most of 2019.”

ACT Research is recognized as a leading publisher of commercial vehicle truck, trailer, and bus industry data, market analysis, and forecasting services for the North American and China markets.

ACT’s analytical services are used by all major North American truck and trailer manufacturers and their suppliers, as well as banking and investment companies. More information can be found at www.actresearch.net.

For more information about ACT’s State of the Industry: US Trailer Report, go to http://www.actresearch.net/services/publications/state-of-the-industry-u-s-trailers/.

ACT’s 60th seminar is scheduled for March 25-27, 2019. It will feature a trucker/fleet panel, as well as discussions on near-term demand of commercial vehicles and the impact of emerging technologies on change in the North American commercial vehicle industry. Information on the seminar can be found at http://www.actresearch.net/services/conferences/.