Looking at last year semi-trailer registration data, no clear trend can be observed. While Germany, the largest market for trailers in Europe, saw a significant decline in registrations, smaller but leading markets such as Poland, Italy and Spain can boast better results than in 2024. However, even these positive results raise doubts as to whether this is the beginning of a market recovery after the collapse of 2024 and whether the results actually reflect the good state of the market.
Analysing the Polish market, 2025 saw a significant increase in registrations of 10.7% y/y. However, the positive picture is marred by the structure of the growth in registrations of individual types of semi-trailers. It turns out that the growth was mainly generated by boxes (+47% y/y), curtainsiders (+30% y/y) and isotherms and reefers (+28% y/y). On the other hand, tippers (-40% y/y) and tankers (-33.3% y/y) cannot count this year as a successful one. Thus, the specialist market lags significantly behind the fleet market.
The second worrying aspect is the total number of registrations in Poland, as it has still not reached pre-pandemic levels. Thus, there is still a large margin for market recovery. In the case of trucks, the pre-pandemic level (approx. 30,000 units) has already been reached. This means that the commercial vehicle market is not developing harmoniously and semi-trailers are lagging behind trucks.
When looking at monthly registrations of new semi-trailers in Poland and several other European markets, we can see that the results are stabilising, but there are also peaks that affect the annual results. The chart shows this effect in Spain from September to November. This is the result of non-standard contracts carried out last year over a short period of time by logistics companies, which distorted the statistics and changed the rankings. In a relatively weak market, situations where individual large orders or legislative changes manipulate the results are common and should be taken into account when analysing the potential of a market. Therefore, relying solely on registration statistics can lead to incorrect conclusions and assessments of potential.
Nevertheless, the positive results give hope that the semi-trailer market will continue to recover in Europe. Much depends on the macroeconomic situation, primarily in Germany, and the geopolitical situation, particularly in Ukraine. The prolonged economic slowdown in Europe’s largest economies and the blockade on sales of new and used semi-trailers to the east are effectively slowing down market growth.
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