FTR says dry van orders were very sturdy, up a huge 146 percent year-over-year, but reefers orders slowed, down 52 percent from December. Trailer orders have totaled 234,000 units for the past twelve months. Production did start off the year weaker, but was generally close to expectations and up 8 percent month-over-month, FTR reports.
“It appears the trailer order cycle has shifted back a few months this year. Instead of starting in September or October, the order season began in November,” says Don Ake, FTR vice president of Commercial Vehicles. “This resulted in an unusually high number of orders in January. Uncertainty over the presidential election is probably the reason for this. Business confidence is running high, so we still got our traditional run of three months of strong orders, it just came later than typical.”
“This is another good sign for trucking, freight and the economy for 2017,” Ake says. “Fleets are showing confidence in the market by placing a strong number of requirement orders for the year. These are not all replacement orders, so some fleets are expecting to expand sometime this year. The strength is centered on dry vans, however. The vocational segments have bottomed out, and have not really began a recovery, very similar to Class 8 trucks.”
