Trailer manufacturers will likely continue to limit orders through next few quarters, says ACT Research in its latest Trailer Components report.
The research firm says supply chain disruptions, such as a lack of component and material availability, continue to be a significant problem for trailer manufacturers, and the issue is widespread, not contained to any small group of parts and materials.
The quarterly is meant to provide those in the trailer production supply chain with forecast quantities of components and raw materials required to support the trailer forecast for the coming five years.
“In addition to supply-chain constraints, workforce availability and reliability are both mentioned as challenges for trailer OEMs,” said Frank Maly, director of commercial vehicle transportation analysis and research at ACT. “And while parts availability and staffing considerations are impacting OEM production, they are also challenging to aftermarket channels.”
When it comes to trailer production, sometimes parts issues are “due to widespread availability issues,” Maly added, but “sometimes it’s because parts have been re-directed to the production side of the business and away from aftermarket support.”
Maly said ACT had seen some new industry production capacity under development, yet trailer “OEMs remain reticent to fully open their 2022 order-boards. We expect them to carefully manage their order acceptance over the next few quarters, as they continue to face unusually long backlog-to-build ratios.”
Price increases, meanwhile, flow through the trailer build supply chain to the end user. “Many OEMs have had to re-negotiate pricing on previously accepted orders with fleets,” Maly said, “implementing either price changes or material surcharges during the year. Sometimes, given their extended backlogs, OEMs returned to their customers more than once for these adjustments, additional reasons for manufacturers’ current caution.”