Van Trailer Shipments Down, Chassis Up

Related Stories Trailer sales rise to record level. (Feb. 23) (Note: To return to this story, click the "Back" button on your browser.)

Shipments of complete truck trailers and chassis for the first two months of 1999 are down 10% from last year, but have shown a slight growth in orders since January.

A Bureau of Census preliminary report showed 45,973 units were sent out by manufacturers, with van shipments representing the biggest portion of the total at an estimated 36,487 units for the two months — an 11.8% drop from the 1998 figure of 41,378.

In January, 22,893 trailers and chassis were shipped, compared with 23,355 in the same period of 1998. A month later, orders had risen to 23,080 units, but were below the 27,720 units of a year earlier.

Revised figures from the federal agency have 51,075 trailers and chassis being shipped during the same two-month period in 1998.

At the same time, 3,304 containers and container chassis were shipped — up more than 14% from January and February of last year, when 2,894 went out.

The fortunes of trailer and container orders were further reflected in the shipments’ dollar figures.

The bureau put the value of trailer units sent out at $841,643,000, compared with $937,284,000 in the first two months of 1998. Containers and chassis brought in about $3.2 million more, going from $25,946,000 in 1998 to $29,196,000 in 1999.

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