The decline in January tractor-trailer orders continued the monthly saw-tooth order pattern that started in October. Despite that month-over-month decline, orders were still strong enough to generate a small gain in January backlog.

This update on industry performance was reported in the latest State of the Industry: U.S. Trailers published by ACT Research Co.

“A total of 20,357 net orders were booked in January, down 34% from December’s 
unsustainable level,” said Frank Maly, director-CV Transportation with ACT Research.

“However, January activity generally met our expectations that the new year might start a bit slow before gaining stride. The average seasonally adjusted annual rate for the last two months was 269,000 units, which gives a better perspective on the market,” he added.

January backlogs increased to 5.3 months.