Trailer backlog continues to improve

US market research company, ACT Research, has reported that the trailer backlog has continued to be positive in October, with a stronger-than-expected improvement of six per cent month-over-month and eight per cent year-over-year.

“Eight of 10 categories were up month-over-month, with liquid tanks and reefers the outliers,” said ACT Research Director – CV Transportation Analysis and Research, Frank Maly. “Eight of 10 were also in the black year-over-year, with medium lowbeds and reefers in the red.”

October’s longer production schedule was reportedly almost perfectly offset by lower build rates.

“The 25.7k trailers built last month was up less than one per cent sequentially,” said Maly. “Year-to-date production of 247,500 trailers is also up less than 1% year over year.

“We expect Q4 2017 daily production to be about five per cent down from Q3 levels. Our projections indicate that total 2017 trailer production will be about three per cent higher than last year, and some increase in factory inventory will result in a slightly smaller year-over-year gain in shipments versus 2016,” he said.

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