Trailer orders in January grew 28 percent from the same month last year, according to numbers released this week by ACT Research, who also released data saying the average selling price of a Class 8 truck in January set a record.
Frank Maly, ACT’s director of commercial vehicle transportation analysis and research, said reefer orders drove much of the gains, climbing 80 percent year over year, followed by tank trailers, which had triple-digit growth from january. Lowbeds had double-digit gains year over year and month over month, Maly said.
The industry is in the midst of its annual ‘order season,’ and January’s orders helped backlog open the year with a solid 8 percent month over month gain,” he said.
The average selling price of a used Class 8 truck in January was more than $44,000 in the month, ACT said, a 15 percent year over year gain and a record price, ACT reported.
However, prices in the year are expected to dip, based on “pent up demand,” says ACT’s Steve Tam. “Based on the assumption of satisfying some of the pent up demand, prices are expected to cool slightly in 2014, ranging from flat to down 5 percent” he said.
