Although there is still one month to go in the second quarter of 2009, U.S. trailer orders have already exceeded the total for the previous six months, according to ACT Research.
While that improvement might be an indication trailer demand has begun to rebound from historically low levels in Q4 ’08 and Q1 ’09, “we can’t be sure we’ve entered a recovery until we see data for the next quarter,” Gayatri Deshpande, ACT research analyst, told Fleet Owner.
Despite the better numbers compared to the previous six months, May trailer orders are 37% below the same month a year ago and well below levels seen in 2006 and 2007, according to ACT’s report State of the Industry: U.S. Trailers.
“Order improvement and an increasing backlog from continued low production levels are both positives,” said Deshpande. “However, there are still significant headwinds in the economy and the industry that will challenge new demand for the remainder of 2009.”
