RV shipments dropped by about 29 percent in September compared to the same time last year, but that shouldn’t be taken as a predictor of dire times ahead, industry officials said.
This story by John Kline originally appeared in the Goshen News.
According to the RV Industry Association’s September survey of manufacturers, total RV shipments finished the month with 30,969 wholesale shipments, a decrease of 29 percent from the 43,598 units shipped last September. More can be read about that here.
According to RVIA spokesman Kevin Broom, while consumer demand for RVs is holding strong, there are a few factors outside of consumer interest that appear to be affecting shipping numbers.
“A big part of what’s going on is that dealers are being more conservative in how they manage their inventories, and some of that is because RV manufacturers have added capacity, and so dealers are a little less concerned about the ability to get product when they need it,” Broom said. “And that may not have been the case when manufacturers were building as fast as they could and trying to add capacity. So that’s something that has changed, where manufacturers have been able to ramp up production capacity to a point where they can meet the demand that’s out there. So that is a factor.”
Also, potentially playing a role in the September shipment decline is the fact that the annual Elkhart RV Open House, considered by most in the RV world to be the preeminent selling show of the industry, was pushed back a week this year in an effort to relax fall show schedules for scores of front-line salespeople from a variety of companies.