ACT Research Wednesday announced the trailer market closed on an extremely strong note in 2017, with 45,700 net orders posted to the backlog.
That was the second highest net order month in the industry’s history, ACT says, trailing only October 2014.
“Major support came from dry vans, which posted their highest net order monthly volume in history. Eight of ten trailer categories were up m/m, while a similar count was up year-over-year,” says Frank Maly, director, CV Transportation Analysis and Research at ACT Research. “For the full year, industry net orders were up 38 percent, and robust orderboards are encouraging fleets to submit orders to obtain preferred/acceptable delivery timing for 2018.”
ACT says total production for December was 19,400 trailers, the lowest monthly production since February 2014.
“The majority of the decline came from dry vans, where some holiday-related scheduling occurred for the second straight year, holding down volume,” Maly says “Inventory drawdown helped offset lower production last month. Added production capacity, helping to generate that higher inventory as the year progressed, also provided support. Total build for the month was equivalent to last year, which also saw holiday-scheduling impact.”
