Chinese company acquires HPA Monon plant

With the U.S. trailer market showing signs of growth, a Chinese company has created a U.S. subsidiary to make dry van trailers in Monon, Ind., as part of its global strategy to expand into new products and markets. Vanguard National Trailer Corp., a subsidiary of China International Marine Containers Group Ltd., completed a $4.5 million transaction on June 26 for a 300-acre Indiana manufacturing complex. The site has 10 buildings that had been used most recently by bankrupt HPA Monon Corp. and two other trailer-manufacturing operations.Based in Shenzhen, China, CIMC has built more than 3 million shipping containers over the past 20 years.It is in the early stages of building dry van trailers in China, and said it intended to create a global market for its truck trailer equipment.