UK consultancy Clear International has issued its latest forecast for the East European Trailer Market, showing increasing demand for trailers in every country other than Russia, Belarus and the Ukraine.
The improvements are reportedly substantial enough to outweigh the reduced trailer demand, with 14,000 trailers added to the forecast for the region, prompting Clear to suggest new trailer demand will exceed pre-GFC levels in both 2016 and 2017.
Even though the outlook for Russia, Belarus and the Ukraine has worsened, 2015 will be the base for the market and demand will grow in all years except one, until 2020.
Russia, the largest market for trailers in Eastern Europe until 2010, has fallen behind Turkey and Poland, while Hungary and the Czech Republic have overtaken the Ukraine and Belarus.
In 2016 growth in trailer demand is forecast in all but two of the fifteen countries in the region. Bulgaria and Lithuania will see falls in trailer demand largely as a result of having had very strong trailer sales in 2015.
Further market growth in 2017 will be wholly dependent on whether a sustainable recovery is underway in Russia.
Gary Beecroft, Managing Director of Clear said, “2016 will see the strongest growth in the trailer market since 2011, but we will not see the sales of new trailers exceed the 2007/08 levels until after 2020.”