Brenner Moves Some Production to Indiana
This story appears in the July 7 print edition of Transport Topics.
Signaling a windfall in the tank industry, Wabash National Corp.’s Brenner Tank, a manufacturer of chemical tank trailers, is expanding production to Lafayette, Indiana.
The development allows for producing more than 300 tank trailers per year. That’s an increase of about 10% over Brenner’s previous annual production of 3,000 tank trailers, said Mark Weber, head of diversified products at Wabash.
A boom in the recovery of oil and natural gas through the process of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has given way to the need for more tank trailers to conduct operations to and from sites, said Daniel Furth, president of National Tank Truck Carriers.
Even with that available capacity, Weber said, the plans for the Brenner expansion over the next 12 to 18 months are to manufacture about 250 trailers annually.
“It’s just a ramp-up period,” he said. “Long-term, we will certainly look to grow from 250 to 300.”
Whether tanks are bringing in sand or other mixes to free up natural gas and oil deposits via fracking, or they’re bringing out oil to the oil field services trailers, Furth said, tanks suitable for such work are in “a huge demand right now.”
“Sand, some chemicals and water need to be brought in to shoot down into the wells [at fracking sites],” Furth said. “So, on the way into a drilling well site, tank trucks are bringing those things in, and anything that comes out of those wells also goes into a tank truck.”
In 2012, 41.9% of available tank trailers were used in oil-field service, compared with 17.7% in 2006, according to a recent survey of over-the-road trailers by SpecialtyTransportation.net.
The added operations in the 80,000-square-foot facility, located at Wabash’s South campus, will expand product offerings to include the manufacture of carbon steel tanks as well as a dedicated capacity for corrosion-resistant fiber-reinforced plastic tank trailers.
The site also will produce aluminum tank trailers and grow Lafayette, Indiana-based Wabash National’s existing truck-mounted equipment.
Wabash National’s three key drivers for the expansion are to leverage the carbon steel capabilities of the Lafayette facility, provide dedicated manufacturing space for fiberglass-reinforced plastics, or FRP, tank trailer production and balance production requirements after the 2013 acquisition of Beall trailers.
Carbon tank trailers, Furth said, can be used to haul crude oil and, because of their resistance to corrosion, FRP tanks may transport fracking chemicals.
Weber said Brenner Tank serves a variety of markets, including chemical, defense, environmental, and oil, gas and energy services.
“Other products manufactured in Lafayette include Wabash dry vans and refrigerated vans, DuraPlate panels, DuraPlate AeroSkirts, portable storage containers and mobile shelters, LTL decking systems and other customer-specific products,” Weber said.
Brenner Tank will continue primary production at the Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, plant, producing a line of aluminum and stainless steel tank trailers. It also has factories in Oregon and Mexico.
