Feb 1, 2010 12:00 PM, By Paul Schenck

• Polar Tank Trailer LLC in Holdingford, Minnesota, produced 1,190 tank trailers in 2009, which was off 46% from the previous year. John Koll, vice-president of sales and marketing, says that Polar increased its market share last year. He expects sales to grow by 30% to 40% this year, based in part on a broader product line. Polar already produces a variety of liquid and dry bulk tank trailers, but has now expanded with other models within that diversified line. Polar has also expanded its company-owned service centers to over 20 in number.

• Talbert Manufacturing Inc in Rensselaer, Indiana, shipped 1,170 lowbed and flatbed trailers in 2009, which is down only 6% from 2008 production. This successful stability resulted from several government contracts, the largest of which was completed in October 2009. Several smaller government contracts are continuing, and with some increasing commercial business, the company is hoping to produce about the same number of trailers in 2010. Stephen Kingman, executive vice-president, says that quote activity has been increasing for the past three or four months.

• Walker Group Holdings manufactured 1,100 tank trailers, off 50%, plus another 800 tank trucks, according to a preliminary report from John Cannon, vice-president of sales and marketing. Walker Group includes tank trailer production by Brenner Tank LLC of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin; Walker Stainless Steel of New Lisbon, Wisconsin; and Progress Tank of Arthur, Illinois.

• Strick Corporation of Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania, completed 1,099 trailers, a drop of 69% from 2008. However, revenue did not suffer the same large drop, because the company is now building highly specialized and higher value vans, flatbeds, and lowboys instead of the more standard trailers. Ben Katz, marketing manager, says high volume assembly lines in Monroe, Indiana, and Berwick, Pennsylvania, have been switched over to more customized production. Heavy-haul trailers are built in Strick's Sumter, South Carolina, plant.

• Trail King Industries manufactured 1,025 truck trailers in 2009, a 69% drop from the previous year. “In one year's time, we went from our best year ever to the worst year in 15 years,” says Chuck Noel, vice-president of administration. However, ordering right now is better than a year ago, and he is optimistic that previous levels of production can be regained in several years.

  Lowbeds, tilt beds, hydraulic tail and heavy haul trailers were down 71% to 727 units. Dump trailers were down 52% to 262, and pneumatic dry bulk trailers were down 84% to 36 units. Not counted in any of these figures are the 112 light utility trailers under 20,000-lb capacity that are not counted as strictly defined truck trailers (having at least one axle over 10,000-lb capacity). If the light utility trailers were included, it would bring Trail King's total production to 1,137 in 2009.

  Trail King closed its Brookville, Pennsylvania, plant in October, 2009. This leaves it with the headquarters plant in Mitchell, South Dakota, and its newest plant in West Fargo, North Dakota.

• Doepker Industries Ltd of Anaheim, Saskatchewan, produced 920 truck trailers in 2009, down 23% from 2008. This was right on target with the company's prediction a year ago. For the 2010 year, Bill Schuler, vice-president of sales and marketing, thinks Doepker production will be up about 16% to 1,070 trailers.

  Schuler believes ag trailers will remain in good demand and that flatbed demand will increase gradually through the year. He thinks gravel trailers and heavy-haul equipment will be in moderate demand, but forestry equipment will be low.

• MAC Trailer Manufacturing of Alliance, Ohio, completed 904 truck trailers, a drop of 59% compared to 2008. While the company's dump trailers, transfer trailers, and platforms were all down, the one bright spot was MAC's new pneumatic dry-bulk trailer that was introduced during the year. Mike Conny says that the new product is performing well with no major problems.

• Pitts Enterprises of Pittsview, Alabama, produced 893 truck trailers, down 37% from 1,417 trailers in 2008. Jeff Pitts, president and CEO, says all three segments of the company are performing well in this depressed economy. This includes forestry trailers and lowbeds from its headquarters plant in Pittsview; Dynaweld platforms and lowbeds in Columbus, Georgia; and Dorsey van trailers, refrigerated vans, platforms and chip trailers from the Elba, Alabama plant.

• Kidron built 878 refrigerated distribution trailers, down 17% from the 1,060 built in 2008. These are mainly food service trailers, ranging up to 53 feet long. Kidron has consolidated all of its refrigerated trailer production in its Montgomery, Pennsylvania, plant, the former Grumman Olson facility. Refrigerated truck bodies (not counted here) are produced in Lakeland, Florida, and its headquarters plant in Kidron, Ohio. John Sommer, executive VP at Kidron, says that they are starting the year with a better backlog than a year ago.

• Kentucky Trailer built 690 trailers, a 35% drop from the 2008 number. Most of these are drop-frame vans for the moving and storage industry, but some are flat-floor freight vans. Because of the crisis in housing-related industries, Kentucky Trailer has diversified in a joint venture with High Tech Performance Trailers of Paynesville, Ohio.

  Kentucky Trailer has expanded greatly the service side of the business, and now has taken over Western Truck and Trailer in Fontana, California. That location will be operated as Kentucky's western repair and refurbishing center for all kinds of van trailers, according to Larry Roy, chief financial officer.

  The biggest change is that Kentucky Trailer is now in its 240,000 sq ft manufacturing plant in the Riverport Industrial District in Louisville, after selling its former central-city site to the University of Louisville.

• Road Systems Inc in Searcy, Arkansas, turned out 640 new-built and refurbished trailers, all long semi-trailers 48 to 53 feet long. This is a decline of 66% from 2008. Lynn Reinbolt, president of Road Systems, says the company had a big increase in the reconditioning and repair side of its business. It reconditioned 2,010 trailers for its parent as well as commercial customers. This reconditioning can include body repairs, floor replacement or repair, door work on both overhead and swing doors, etc.

• East Manufacturing Company in Randolph, Ohio, produced 570 all-aluminum platforms, dump trailers, and transfer trailers, down 54% from 2008. However, shipments were up for both December and January over a year ago. David Tate, president of East Mfg, looks for a gradual increase in the market throughout 2010. He thinks aluminum dump trailers will do better than the 20% to 25% increase forecast for the trailer industry in 2010.

• Western Trailer in Boise, Idaho, put out 512 complete trailers, down 26% from 2008. Tod Swanstrom, engineering manager, says customers are more optimistic and quoting activity is picking up, but the company is still expecting a slow start this year.

• Tremcar Inc built 468 liquid and dry bulk tank trailers in 2009, down 44% from 2008. Daniel Tremblay, president, says about a third of these are for the U.S. and two-thirds for Canadian haulers. Tremcar's headquarters plant is in St-Jean sur Richelieu, Quebec, and another in Toronto, Ontario. Its U.S. plant is in Strasburg, Ohio. He expects a somewhat improved year in 2010. He says queries have picked up, especially in the last two weeks of January.

• Reitnouer Inc in Reading, Pennsylvania, had a disastrous year, down 71% after a 24% decline the previous year and a loss of 53% in 2007. It built 3,738 aluminum platforms three years ago, but only 435 in 2009. “Our customers haul for the construction and automotive industries,” says Bud Reitnouer, president. “We were building at the rate of 40 a week before the financial melt-down, but only four a month four months later.”

  That kind of shock is enough to inspire diversification. Reitnouer will introduce two new transfer trailers at the Mid-America Truck Show in Louisville in March. One dumps on a platform tipper and the other has a moving floor. Both are aluminum, no-weld, bolted and bonded construction, just like the Reitnouer platforms.

• Beall Corporation built 389 aluminum trailers in 2009, down 59% from the previous year, and 194 aluminum truck bodies used in doubles trains, down 28%. This adds up to 583 cargo units, a decline of 52% from 2008. Beall specializes in petroleum tank trailers, pneumatic dry bulk trailers and dump trailers, plus truck chassis-mounted bodies.

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