FTR reports final July net trailer orders meeting expectations at 13,400 units, falling from June with a m/m drop of 29%, but still up 40% from last July.
Trailers orders have now totaled 264,000 units over the past 12 months. Production fell over 3% from June on a per-day basis. Backlogs fell 8% and remain 12% below a year ago.
“The trailer market had a typical month of July,” said Don Ake, FTR Vice President of Commercial Vehicles. “Orders usually fall as fleet managers take a break and turn their focus to next year. The bright spots this month are the strong flatbed orders, and that production did not fall much from June’s impressive totals. This indicates production should be fairly steady the rest of the year.
“Most fleets have their orders in for this year. We expect August orders to be subdued before starting to recover in September. The fall order season should be robust, as freight demand continues to grow and fleets lose productivity due to use of Electronic Logging Devices.”