trailer world Issue One 2012

Issue One 2012 37 Interview In his office at GE Equipment Services Europe BV, David Coupar presents us with a chart showing the market trend for used trailers over the last five years. „We all have a tendency to look at the market from the beginning of the credit crunch, so from 2008 to now. But I prefer to look a couple of years further back.“ Coupar shows us how resale values have gradually recovered and how investment in new trailers has risen since the second half of 2008. „If we look a little further back, we can see that resale values have once again reached the healthy level that they were at in 2006. A couple of years before that, it was obvious that the rouble crisis of 1998 had an impact on the Russian trailer market and led to a very tight market in Europe. It was only from 2002 to 2007 that the situ- ation began to improve year-on-year.“ During the credit crisis, the market for used trailers shrank, as did European trailer production. „On the German internet exchanges for used vehicles there were normally no more than a thousand cur- tainsiders for sale at any one time. But since the second half of 2008 and through 2009 this figure has multiplied five times. During the same period, the prices fell by up to 40 percent.“ The way that Coupar and his colleagues operated during the crisis shows how the used trailer market works. “During the crisis, we didn’t try to sell any mint condition trailers. It didn’t make any sense in view of the collapse in the used trailer market. But we man- aged to tap into Middle Eastern markets where there was an upturn in demand for used trailers. So we managed to get rid of our oldest vehicles at a reasonable price and reduce our over-capacity. During the crisis, the used trailer market shrank overall by 14 percent. But there were massive regional differences.” The Russian market – one of the most important export markets for used trailers – shrank by more than 60 percent. But Coupar explained that at the same In Amsterdam, trailer world talks to David Coupar, European Remarketing Manager of TIP Services/GE Equipment Services, about the trend in resale values for used trailers. Photos:GETip,IngriddeGroot

trailer world Issue One 2012

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