*By 2028 the market will have surpassed the record sales level of 2023
CLEAR International has issued its April 2026 forecast for the East European Heavy Goods Trailer Market. Of the four largest market for trailers in Eastern Europe, two saw falls in trailer registrations in 2025 and the other two had gains. Russia had the largest fall in trailer demand but that was on the back of large increases in 2023/24 related to the war in Ukraine. Turkey had a much smaller fall – in fact less than expected in 2025 – following on from significant gains in 2020-23.
Poland and Lithuania had increased trailer registrations in 2025 as forecast in October, as did Bulgaria. For the region overall trailer demand fell by 9,300 units – a fall that would have been larger but for the increase in demand in Turkey in the last few months of 2025.
The other East European countries covered in this report had 2025 sales tracking much as expected in the October forecast. A small amount of market growth is forecast for Eastern Europe in 2026 but there will be more substantial increases in 2027/28.
The reasons for the weak demand in 2024/25 are tolerably obvious: The war in Ukraine has led to a fall in business confidence which has manifested itself as a lack of willingness to increase investment in new transport equipment such as trailers and heavy trucks.
Another factor is the trade tariffs imposed by the US which have further damaged business confidence and led to the postponement or cancellation of the investment plans of businesses on a global basis. The war in Iran will have the same effect, as oil and gas prices rise as a consequence. This will result in inflation and the postponement of interest rate cuts across the region and elsewhere.
2023 had record demand for new trailers, with the East European market exceeding 120,000 units for the first time. Turkey had sensational levels of trailer sales. Arguably there are now plenty of new trailers in the regional fleet. It will take until 2028 for the trailer demand of 2023 to be surpassed.
Another dampening factor is that since 2022q4 the demand for road transport in Eastern Europe (measured in tonne-km) has stopped growing. It had been increasing in a linear fashion for the previous twenty years, but even Poland, which has the highest road transport demand in Europe, had a 2.7% fall in demand in 2023. In the whole of Europe, this fall was only exceeded by Germany which had a fall of 5.8%. In 2024 road transport demand in the region was flat but for 2025 an increase of 1.1% is estimated.
Likewise import and export trade in Eastern European countries, measured in US$, had been falling since 2022, but in the second half of 2024 trade first stabilised, then started to grow, meaning that further growth in the future is likely. Growth of 5.2% is estimated for 2025.
The outlook for 2026 is for a return to growth after a difficult environment in 2024/25. Seven of the fifteen countries in the region will grow, in some cases substantial growth in percentage terms, and the falls in other countries will be minor with the sole exception of Bulgaria . That country had a huge gain in 2025 which will prompt a rebalancing fall in 2026. More substantial growth is anticipated across the region in 2027/28.
The report outlines when, where and how quickly the trailer market will recover and develop through to 2030.