In The News

Trailer orders up in December; used Class 8 sales rebound

COLUMBUS, Ind. — Net orders of commercial trailers rose to 22,915 in December, a seven percent increase over a strong November. ACT Research Co. also reported that unit sales of used heavy-duty (Class 8) commercial vehicles increased 21 percent in December on a month-over-month basis.

Along with trailer orders, December factory shipments were up 12 percent from November and up 69 percent versus December of last year.

ACT noted the surge in net orders has been broad based. Seven of the nine trailer categories reported triple digit year-over-year increases in December, led by a 417 percent gain in the “dry van” segment, the largest trailer market, according to the latest release of State of the Industry: U.S. Trailers.

For the full year, commercial trailer factory shipments rose 52 percent while net orders rose by 105 percent. 

“Comparatively speaking, 2010 was a good year for the commercial trailer industry as factory shipments rebounded by 52 percent,” said Kenny Vieth, president and senior analyst with ACT Research. “However, the fact that even with that increase, 2010 was the second worse year for factory shipments since 1983, clearly shows how bad 2009 was. The good news is that orders have ramped up nicely in the last quarter and set the stage for strong growth in 2011.”

In the latest release of the State of the Industry: U.S. Classes 3-8 Used Trucks, ACT reported that unit retail channel sales for the full-year of 2010 were up by 31 percent, followed by a 18 percent gain for the wholesale channel and six percent for auctions. The data is based on same dealer sales from ACT’s database of used truck dealer sales.

“Despite a pick-up in sales volume, constricted supplies of equipment of all sizes was the main headline for 2010 and will continue to garner the spotlight in the coming year,” said Steve Tam, vice president-commercial vehicle sector with ACT. “There should be some increase in the supply of used trucks as new Class 8 sales rebound, but the supply of late-model and low mileage units is expected to stay tight. That will allow used prices to continue to rise.”

ACT Used Truck database participants report approximately 2,500 transactions per month. ACT estimates that approximately 10 percent of used Class 8 transactions are currently included in the database.

The report from ACT also provides data on the average used price for the top-selling Class 8 model for each of the major truck OEM’s – Freightliner (Daimler); Kenworth and Peterbilt (Paccar); International (Navistar); and Volvo and Mack (Volvo).

Subscription information for the full report is available on the ACT web site.

ACT publishes new and used commercial vehicle (CV) industry data, market analysis and forecasting services for the North American market, as well as the China CV market.

Kevin Jones of The Trucker staff can be reached for comment at [email protected] .

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