Trailer Orders Up 29.5% in November, ACT Says

Customers ordered 28,393 new trailers in November, a 29.5% increase from the same month a year earlier and the largest monthly total since March 2006, ACT Research Co. said.

Manufacturers suggested they were seeing even stronger activity during December.

Through the first 11 months of the year, trailer manufacturers have received 207,404 orders, a 41% increase compared with the 147,141 trailers ordered through the first 11 months of 2010, ACT said.

“Our dry van activity was very positive [during November], but then it really started to heat up in early December, and that keyed strong orders straight across the spectrum, from private fleets to truckload carriers,” Chris Hammond, vice president of fleet sales for Great Dane Trailers, Savannah, Ga., told Transport Topics.

“Vanguard’s orders through November and this far into December have been as strong as any time in memory,” Charlie Mudd, president of Vanguard National Trailer Corp, Monon, Ind., told TT in late December.

“Business is good, and orders have been excellent,” Glenn Harney, chief sales officer of Hyundai Translead, San Diego, told TT.

“We are seeing strong activity for both [November and December],” David Giesen, vice president of sales and marketing at Stoughton Trailers, Stoughton, Wis., told TT.

All agreed that replacement of aged trailers was the main reason fleets were ordering new trailers.

ACT said that November orders jumped 60.5% from October order levels of 17,690. In November 2010, customers ordered 21,918 new trailers.

In a statement, ACT said, “The industry posted its strongest monthly order volume since March 2006.”

Dry vans and refrigerated vans make up the two most popular vans, followed by platform vans.

Manufacturers of other types of trailers are also having a strong 2011.

“Demand for tankers in the crude oil fields has really become hyperactive,” Daniel Jarboe, senior vice president of marketing and sales of tanker manufacturer Beall Corp., Portland, Ore., told TT.

He said 75% of the tankers Beall constructs are for the petroleum industry.

“We have a lead time of more than a year,” Jarboe said. “If you order an oil tanker from us now, we couldn’t deliver it until 2013.”

He said Beall completed a major expansion of its plants in 2008 to increase capacity, but labor shortages tied to the oil boom have prevented the company from ramping up production further.

“We have one of our major tank production plants in Billings, Mont.,” Jarboe explained. “That is very close to the major new oil field in North Dakota. Everyone is flocking there to work because wages are much higher. It’s like a gold rush.”

Manufacturers of dry vans and reefers had shorter lead times, but still long enough to build confidence.

“We’re building our backlog until they’re pretty much complete through April, and some lines are complete through June,” Hyundai’s Harney said.

“Vanguard’s dry van production is currently mostly sold through the first six months of 2012,” Mudd said. “We are hesitant to price equipment for the second half of 2012 because we are unsure of material and component costs.”

“We’re pushing deeper in the second quarter, across all van lines, but in some plants, it’s getting out farther than that,” Great Dane’s Hammond said.

“We are adding capacity to meet our customers’ needs,” Giesen of Stoughton said. “By print time, we will be filled for the first quarter and have orders scheduled into the second quarter.”