Stoughton Trailers plans to grow its intermodal chassis production for 2022, with new manufacturing operations located in Waco, Texas. The site was selected “tap into alternative labor markets,” the company noted.
The location also provides convenient access to the many seaports, railyards and chassis customer locations in the southern tier of the United States, Stoughton added..
The construction of the Waco facility is already underway and Stoughton anticipates moving manufacturing equipment in by March, with chassis production to begin by early second quarter. The new facility is expected to employ up to 125 people.
“The new Waco facility and Stoughton production line will help fulfill our customer production commitments for 2022 and beyond,” said Bob Wahlin, President & CEO, Stoughton. “By the end of 2022, the company will have invested $25 million dollars expanding our chassis production capacity. These investments would not have been possible without the remedial relief provided by the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on chassis from China.” “I would like to thank our facilities, operations and chassis team members for their hard work to date on these important projects.”
The company in December added a new chassis production line in the Stoughton, Wisconsin facility. Once ramped up to full production, Stoughton expects to employ an additional 150 people in the Stoughton plant assembling chassis and manufacturing components to feed the other chassis production lines, according to the manufacturer.
When the Waco, Stoughton, and Evansville, Wis., facilities are operating at capacity, the collective output will increase the run rate to approximately 20,000 to 25,000 chassis per year, hitting that rate by September 2022, Stoughton reported.