Chinese Investment Brings New Vitality to a Small U.S. Town
In 2017, James Wilkerson, 58, an employee at a trailer factory in Monon, Indiana, the U.S. for over 30 years, has witnessed the vicissitudes of the trailer industry, as well as how a Chinese enterprise rejuvenated the town of America’s Midwest.
Located in northwest Indiana, Monon County is 160 km away from Chicago, the third largest city in the country, and it impresses the nearby dwellers with “discarded railway tracks”, “huge tracts of cornland”, and “the trailer factory”.
Monon was once a brilliant regional transportation hub from the mid-1890s to 1920s along with the emerging trailer industry. In its best years, a trailer company named “HPA Monon” employed over 400 workers, accounting for one third of the town’s population, and sustained the livelihood of hundreds of households.
However, the economic recession in America in the late 1990s in 20th century was severe to the point where HPA Monon, like thousands of other Midwest enterprises, had to slash production, downsize, and finally shut off entirely in 2000.
“Out of work, many families moved away. And in the following two years, none was at the empty factory area”, recalled Wilkerson.
“Then came the CIMC, “ he said.
In the summer of 2013, China International Marine Containers (CIMC) with its headquarters located in Shenzhen of China came to town and acquired the bankrupted HPA Monon. In the following years, the CIMC, ambitious in expanding overseas market, restored electricity, reset production line, recruited local employees, and established the Vanguard National Trailer Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of CIMC, without any delay. Wilkerson joined Vanguard trailer factory together with other more than 20 senior staff members from HPA Monon. He never expected that it would turn out to be a Chinese enterprise thousands of miles away that resurrected the town’s trailer industry.
“At the very beginning, we had only fewer than 40 employees. But soon we had more business and more orders, and we’ve got over 400 workers, just like before”, Wilkerson told Xinhua Net.
During the past 14 years, starting with small business, Vanguard has developed to today’s position that its product occupation ranked fourth in America, and meanwhile Wilkerson is now a person in charge of the factory’s production line from a worker.
The prosperity of the Vanguard trailer factory brought people hope again and brought long-lost vitality to the town. According to local officials, the Vanguard’s annual value of production accounted for over 80% of that of the whole town in recent years.
“Vanguard is of great significance to Monon. Almost every family and every household has a member who works in the factory. The taxes that Vanguard trailer factory paid underpin the town’s most important public facilities, such as schools and hospitals,” said Randy Mitchell, president of the White County Economic Development Organization.
Mitchell told Xinhua Net that the Vanguard’s success made him realize the importance of Chinese investment in the development of White County. In 2017, he led a delegation to China for the first time, signed a Cooperation Agreement with its friendly exchange city of Funing County, Jiangsu, marking its prologue to more mutual benefit and cooperation with China.
Vanguard CEO Charlie Mudd reckons that the factory’s success lies in the Chinese enterprise’s respect for the American market and local culture. “It’s an enterprise invested by China but run by Americans”.
“China and America complement each other’s advantages. The Chinese enterprise has been well integrated into the local community, which can be considered a real sense of cooperation,” Mudd supplemented.
Vanguard National Trailer Corporation, annual value of production accounted for over 80% of that of the whole town.
Monon County also records the entry of this Chinese enterprise in its own way. In the restaurant of train museum of which locals feel proud, the train models representing the town’s glorious history is dazzling. One of the most eye-catching of which is nothing better than a train shuttling back and forth above dining tables, its locomotive pulling a white container vehicle model with its body bearing the emblazoned word “Vanguard”.