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Demand for tipping trailers to plummet
Page 50
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• Demand for new tipping trailers could fall by as much as 20-25% this year, predicts a leading distributor.
"The total annual market fluctuates from roughly 500 to about 1,600," says Newton Commercials director, Andrew Smith, "It hit approximately 1,400 in 2002, and I reckon it will fall to around ',Jo°.
"Partly it's because the advent of 44 tonnes pushed a lot of people into replacing trailers over the past couple of years," he continues. "They won't need to do so again in the foreseeable future. Partly, however, it's because of what's happening with the pound and the euro."
Operators who do need to acquire tipping trailers can look forward to paying io to 15% more for them as a result of the fall of sterling against the euro, Smith contends. Newton Commercials imports Stas trailers from Belgium.
"Importers will have to put up their prices first, but British manufacturers will follow them because they rely so heavily on compo nents brought in from the Continent," he says. "They're assemblers rather than manufacturers."
If anybody is going to benefit, he says, it will be companies that source trailers and components from countries outside the euro zone. "You should do well if you're bringing in chassis from Turkey, for instance," he says.
Smith is seeing a healthy rise in the demand for walking floor trailers, but expects sales of ejection trailers to decline.
"Increasingly, waste is having to be transported 200 miles to a recycling plant rather than just up the road to be dumped into a hole in the ground," he remarks. That being the case, you'll probably switch to a walking floor because it can carry 3.5 tonnes more than a heavy ejector, but costs the same."
What's happening in the second-hand market?
"The used tipping trailer market is poor at present because people lack confidence," he replies. "Customers aren't sure whether the second-hand trailer they're about to buy can be used at 44 tonnes, so if they can afford it they're buying new instead.
"The test stations can't always advise them whether a particular used trailer is suitable for 44-tonne work because they're not always certain either."
Used values have been affected as a consequence of this uncertainty. That in turn is affecting the new trailer business because customers are getting less than they expected for their existing equipment.
"It's stalled the market," Smith remarks.
Other companies are more optimistic about the used sector. "We're finding that there's a good
demand for 65yd3 general purpose tipping trailers, but they've got to be post 1996/1997, and suitable for 44tonne operations," says Kevin Pell, sales director at United Trailers.
Demand for second-hand trailers of all types—
including curtainsiders, sliding skeletals and flats—is remarkably healthy at present, says Rod Pybus, proprietor of dealer SDC Northern. "Perhaps it's the case that a lot of hauliers are running such old, worn-out tackle that they've no option but to get rid of it and buy late used equipment," he observes.
"Prices are keen, of course," he continues. "New, top specification, sliding skeletals are selling for £2,500 to £3,0u00 less than they were three years ago, so that's bound to have an impact on second-"410+ hand prices."
-That's offset by a shortage of good used stock. "We tend to sell second
hand trailers dating from ig 96 /T 997 onwards, and they're not easy to get hold of," he observes.