Despite orders strong enough to generate a small gain in January backlog, orders for new trailers crashed more than 30 percent from December.

“A total of 20,357 net orders were booked in January, down 34 percent 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.”

Backlogs increased to 5.3 months, ACT Research reported.