ACT Research says it preliminary estimate for February 2017 U.S. Net Trailer Orders is 26,400 units, with final February volumes to be available later this month. ACT says its methodology allows the company generate an early estimate of the market that should be within +/- 3 percent of the final order results.
“We’ve seen delayed timing this order season, as fleets appeared to wait to make their investment decisions ‘post-election.’ That makes analysis of monthly changes as well as year-over-year results a bit challenging. The January to February decline in net orders, roughly a 20 percent slide, is much more in line with expectations for the December to January timeframe,” says Frank Maly, ACT’s director, CV Transportation Analysis and Research. “The delay in the overall order season has the opposite impact on year-over-year comps; February will be roughly 24 percent better than the same month last year.
“A quick review of other industry measures show cancellations, which we define as a percent of the backlog, continue at a tolerable level, although in February they appear to have drifted upward to the highest rate posted since October,” Maly says. “Additionally, it appears that reefer backlogs held steady last month, while both the dry van and total industry orderboards posted their fourth straight monthly gain.”
