Interesting news about the world of heavy trucks. The domestic hauling companies are still flat on their tuchuses, but the suppliers are getting busy. The military demand is getting crazy for trucks and components and some of the big contracts are soon to come. Afghanistan is going to require a different group of vehicles than Iraq.
Another leg of demand is China. The Chinese have lots of dollars and a need to move goods around their vast countryside. Evidently they are shopping here for the best and most durable vehicles.
The other leg of the stool is the heavy truck rebuild market. Because the truckers are not buying new trucks they are doing a lot of million-mile refurbishing.
Even though the stats may show truck sales are way off, the picture for the suppliers is different. I had a long talk with an engineer from Hendrickson whose forte is building truck suspensions. They sell to major heavy truck builders such as Navistar, Peter Built, Mercedes, Volvo and Oshkosh.
It’s counter intuitive that the lousy state of the trucking business in America continues as the truck manufacturers are becoming quite busy.
Question: Have you noticed the uptrend of military, export, and rebuild in your business?
