July Trailer Orders Slump to Lowest in Nearly Three Years

This story appears in the Sept. 2 print edition of Transport Topics.

Trailer manufacturers received the lowest total of new orders in nearly three years during July, blaming an economy that has failed to give customers enough confidence to add equipment, ACT Research reported.

July’s tally of 12,739 was the lowest since August 2010, when about 11,800 orders were received, according to ACT. It also was down 6.7% from the 13,655 ordered in July 2012, and 17.2% on a sequential basis from June’s total of 15,386.

July often is the slowest month of the year, but even by that standard, orders still were below expectations, ACT analyst Frank Maly said.

“We continue to hear concerns about the pace of the economy and a very uneven path for freight,” he said. Fleets are “just not in a situation where they’re confident enough to pull that trigger.”

On a positive note, Maly said order cancellations have remained low, indicating that buyers are “standing firm” on the orders they’ve placed.

Nearly all trailer makers told Transport Topics orders were down in July.

“Certainly, seasonality plays into it, but I do sense that maybe it is more than just the normal seasonality,” said Chris Hammond, vice president of dealer and international sales at Great Dane Trailers.

“I think there’s just this general malaise in the economy right now.” He said mixed economic reports are not “building a whole lot of confidence.”

As a result, “We’ve had to reduce some [production] rates a little bit here and there” while also stretching out the backlog, Hammond said.

He also said some customers already are placing orders for next year, rather than the second half of 2013.

“We feel like if we can get into the beginning of the year, we have enough quoting activity going on to keep us at a good level of production,” he said.

Larry Roland, marketing director at Utility Trailer Manufacturing Co., said despite a slump in July, order activity in August was “ramping up very nicely to put us back on track.”

“The [July] dip, to us, was nothing more than standard summer doldrums,” Roland said.

He said Utility has allowed natural attrition at some plants by holding off on hiring, but the company’s current build rates still are “very high.”

“We’re still predicting a record year for production in 2013,” he said.

David Giesen, vice president of sales and marketing at Stoughton Trailers, said July orders were “a little better” than a year earlier, with the final tally falling right in line with the seasonal norm.

“I still hear the same comments like a broken record — that the economy is slow or sluggish,” Giesen said. “It’s not terrible, it’s just that it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. It’s just plod-ding along.”

He also said Stoughton held off on replacement hires during July as a way to scale back growth plans.

“That was our tap on the brakes,” Giesen said.

Glenn Harney, chief sales officer for Hyundai Translead, said his company also experienced a decline in July orders, but he predicted August should show better results.

He said he was confident the company will generate enough order activity to continue at current build rates in the months ahead.

During Wabash National Corp.’s recent earnings call, CEO Dick Giromini said the company’s backlog expanded slightly during the second quarter, which he called a “good indication of continuing order-demand strength.”

“This leads us to believe that the overall demand environment for trailers remains solid as the second quarter has historically been a good indicator of what to expect for the balance of the year,” he said.