Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from [Steve Fronzy] – Sidoti and Company.
[Steve Fronzy] – Sidoti and Company
In terms of the addition to the rental fleet this year, it looks like you added 39 in the quarter, a little ahead of probably the 100 or so you’re hoping for the year. Any chance you’re expecting now more than 100 this year or is that still a reasonable?
Stephen C. Taylor
No. I mean we think it’s going to be, you know, actually 100 or less because still because the big part of that 39 was in January because we were still winding things down pretty quickly. So January was probably two-thirds of that number. So we’re on the downside already.
[Steve Fronzy] – Sidoti and Company
And then I mean obviously an extremely impressive utilization at the end of the quarter given the decline in rig count, that, I assume, continues to trend down over the next couple of quarters?
Stephen C. Taylor
Well we think so. As I mentioned I think Q2, Q3 are still going to be, you know, I think the trough’s going to be towards the end of Q3 so we’re going to be trending down through that period, so we’re still expecting price pressures and utilization pressure. You know, one of the things about our utilization although 82% is relatively good in this market, we probably drove some of that down ourselves just by some of the units we built in January before we could get them fully shut down. So some of that is even an artificial drop in utilization. So we’re concentrating on as you know we watch that utilization pretty close so, you know, we’ll still see some pressure there.
[Steve Fronzy] – Sidoti and Company
And then just also on pricing, significant pressure, what have you seen so far?
Stephen C. Taylor
Well, you know I guess significant is in the eye of the beholder. We think we’ve done a better job than probably the market in being able to preserve our price. We’re working with our customers on this stuff and it’s only reasonable we do that. And I think we’re in better shape than most just from the point of the quality of our equipment out there and the quality of our service. I think we still are able to maintain some premium pricing and that just translates into probably just a little less of a percentage give back than maybe some others are having to do.
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