Though U.S. trailer orders slid for the fourth month in a row last month, the market still posted more than 26,000 net orders, ACT Research reported Monday in its State of the Industry: U.S. Trailer Report.
The company says the report shows the long-running order stream that started in the fall of 2017 and never really seasonally slid in mid-year is finally running out of steam, but not from lack of demand.
“Two factors are impacting order placement,” says Frank Maly, director, commercial vehicle transportation analysis and research, ACT Research. “First, the dramatic surge in orders during the second half of 2018 rapidly filled available 2019 build slots, so few production spots are available. Secondly, just because fleets want to order doesn’t mean OEMs are willing to extend their obligations, given uncertainties of component costs that far into the future.”
Maly adds, “January’s minor sequential backlog decline was that metric’s first month-over-month slide since June, with net order volume not quite strong enough to outpace build during 2019’s first month, as seven of the ten trailer categories posted sequential backlog declines.”
Further, ACT Research says the report notes that with reefer backlog currently projected to extend into early February of 2020, OEMs would like to increase build rates this year, but noting that cooperation from key component suppliers would be needed. Overall, ACT says the total industry backlog approaches Thanksgiving.
