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| Past Issues |
September 2009 |
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Resilience H eavy-duty truck trailers are an integral component of the road freight industry and while the truck tractors that tow them are all imported, almost all truck trailers are manufactured locally. Indeed, South Africa’s trailer fabricators are amongst the world’s finest and many local builders are exporting their products to First World markets and into Africa.However, with the global recession continuing to put the squeeze on our economy, the local truck transport industry is biting the bullet. With new truck sales down by over 50 percent from 2008, trailer sales have consequently seen order numbers drop by an even larger percentage. While the picture for the folk fashioning the vehicles that ‘carry the load’ may not be as pretty as desired, it’s not all doom and gloom out there. Resilience is the watchword and South Africa’s trailer manufacturing industry is well equipped to ride out the crisis. In this Special Report on Trailers, Paul Collings garners some insights from trailer industry leaders on the state of the market, highlighting various approaches to business that keep the semis, links and draw-bars moving out of the factory and down the road.
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2009 FleetWatch magazine and FleetWatch On-Line.
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