ibinews.com International Boat Industry | JUNE–JULY 2019 23
Markets & Regions
OVERVIEW | USA
just one slow quarter.”
Weather is also being pegged as a contributing
factor to softer Q1 sales, particularly in the northern
part of the continent. “We saw a slowdown in the
early part of this year and a big part of that was
clearly weather-related,” says Beneteau America
president, Jean-Francois Lair. “In many markets the
long, wet winter pushed sales later into the season.
What we have seen since the beginning of May,
however, is that sales have been steadily picking
up. So we are hopeful that there is some pent-up
demand, that we have just seen a slow quarter and
nothing more than that.”
That slow start to the year has already left its
mark in the inventory pipeline. San Francisco-
based Wells Fargo & Co, which provides inventory
floorplan financing to a large number of North
American boat dealers, recently amended the 2019
industry forecast that it presented at the Miami
International Boat Show in February. “Inventory
levels are higher at this point, so we’ve reduced
our forecast down from 4%-5% in unit growth
for the year to more of a 1%-2% unit growth, and
dollar growth from about 7% down to about 5%,”
said Bruce Van Wagoner, president of Wells Fargo
Commercial Distribution Finance – Marine Group.
“So it’s been modified slightly because of the activity,
but overall the ageing and turn in the market is still
as good as it’s ever been.”Q1 EXPORTS HAMPERED BY TARIFFS
Where discussions with boatbuilders in early
2018 focused on factory expansions and whether
they could meet dealer demands for product,
conversations one year later focused largely on
tariffs and their impact on export trade. American
boatbuilders who export inventory to Canadian
dealers report near-universal sales declines this
winter, which they directly attribute to the 10%
retaliatory tariff that the Canadian government
imposed last June on boats imported from the US.
With a majority of the boats sold in Canada being
produced in US factories, a significant number of
Canadian dealers fast-tracked orders in the second
quarter of 2018 in order to stockpile inventory
before the tariff took effect. “What is important to
recognise is that the sales increases for the 2018
season were all achieved between January and the
end of June, as Canadians accelerated purchases
in anticipation of the retaliatory tariffs that were
imposed on July 1,” said NMMA Canada president,
Sara Anghel. “Sales levels in the wake of the tariff,The value buyer is
more of an impulse
buyer, and when the weather's
not there, they're just not going
to make the same effort
to get to the showsComplete Climate Solutions: Heating, Cooling & Roofs
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