Trailer Orders in December Dip 3% Annually
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U.S. trailer orders ended 2024 trending slightly below the previous December, ACT Research reported.
Preliminary net data showed orders declined 3% year over year to 24,300 units. But that still represented a 3,500-order increase over the previous month. Seasonally adjusted results at this point in the annual order cycle lowers the total for the month to 17,500 units. The latest results also bring the final net order tally for the year down 31% to 163,500 units.
“Though past the traditional peak, we’re still in the early stages of the 2025 order season, so this month’s uptick was expected,” said Jennifer McNealy, director of commercial vehicle market research at ACT. “It’s also no surprise that the data are below the December 2023 intake, given the softer demand recorded throughout this year.”
McNealy cautioned that expectations for weak trailer demand relative to recent performance remain despite a fourth-quarter improvement in orders. She noted this has been a consequence of for-hire truck market fundamentals continuing to be weak, low used equipment valuations, relatively full dealer inventories and high interest rates impeding stronger activity.
[January State of the Industry: U.S. Trailers Update ] - US Trailer Market Moves Toward Better Conditions
Read more from the update here: https://t.co/kER7K58ir4 pic.twitter.com/OaNrpRgt7M — ACT Research (@actresearch) January 21, 2025
“It is a little slower,” said Dan Taylor, director of sales at Western Trailer. “Orders are a little slow for people to make a decision and pull the trigger. So we’re OK, but it’s not like super great. A lot of folks said when we finished with the election, things were going to really heat up. We have yet to see it heat up.”
Taylor isn’t expecting this pent-up demand to materialize later on. Instead he described his current backlog of orders as being more traditional. He suspects the industry is now well past the coronavirus pandemic era of yearlong backlogs. Back then the demand was strong enough for orders to just be filled without much work. But he noted that isn’t the case anymore.
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“We’re a Great Dane dealer and have been forever,” Taylor said. “What I’m hearing from them, just watching the market, I think we’re going to be in for an OK year, but we’re going to have to work hard to keep our orders filled, to fill our slots.”
Taylor also pointed out there are people working in the industry who weren’t around before the coronavirus. He noted that this down cycle may be the first time they have had to push a sale as opposed to just fulfilling them.
“2024 ended about as expected,” Hyundai Translead CEO Sean Kenney said. “Dealers and customers are showing optimism that the freight rate challenges may be abating into the second half of the year. We have maintained a flexible operation so that we may respond to market demand changes as they occur throughout the year.”
