Trailer Industry Orders Soft in May Against Strong April

New trailer orders of 15,660 trailers fell 30% month over month but the result was mostly due a comparison to a very strong April.

May’s volume was more in line with seasonal expectations. This update on industry performance was reported in the latest State of the Industry: U.S. Trailers published by ACT Research Co.

“Cancellations continue to be a non-issue for the industry, although they did increase month over month in May, “ said Frank Maly, director-CV Transportation with ACT Research.

“It was evident that some fleets reassessed their commitments for the second half of the year, since cancellations were at 7.9% of new orders,” he added. Maly said that softer orders in May were not a concern, since the industry is now past the prime order season.

Net orders were off only 1% year over year.