Skyjack to produce in Mexico

Linamar Corp. announced that Skyjack will begin manufacturing select products from one of its Mexican production facillities as early as mid-2023. Speaking during its Q3 investors call on Nov. 9, Linamar President and COO Jim Jarrell said the access equipment manufacturer will begin producing telehandlers from one of Linamar’s four Mexican plants by mid-2023, with all additional product lines being added by the end of 2024. Linamar is Skyjack’s parent company. 

Skyjack’s SJ519TH. (Photo: Skyjack)

The news was announced during Linamar’s Q3 results presentation, which saw Skyjack sales trend upward for Q3, despite ongoing supply chain issues and commodity pricing increasings. Linamar CEO Linda Hasenfratz said double-digit growth is expected for Skyjack’s full year results, but added that Q4 will see “sales down compared to Q3 of this year, but meaningfully up from Q4 of last year.”

Hasenfratz said North American and European access markets each experienced “strong, double-digit growth over the prior year in Q3,” while Asia “is also growing, but at a more muted level” when compared to North America and Europe. 

Utilization in North America slowed a little during Q3 compared to 2019 levels for Skyjack, but remain +/- 2% of 2021 levels. “Utilization levels in Europe continued to trend well about 2019 levels this year, although the gap to 2021 narrowed a little in Q3,” she added. 

Skyjack’s backlog is up 2.5 times compared to the prior year due to “robust market demand,” Hasenfratz added. “Delivery of orders is being impacted by supply chain challenges, however. As we work through these issues, we feel confident we can grow Skyjack in double digits this year and next year based on this very strong backlog. We are of course keeping a close eye on potentially shifting market conditions for 2023 in the event of an economic slowdown.”

A screengrab of Sky360. (Photo: Linamar Corp.)

Skyjack is also rolling out a new customer-focused technology solution, Sky360, which is a service tool that allows technicians to interact through a live video feed to customers in the field. Sky360 will work in tandem with Skyjack’s ELEVATE telematics technology and will highlight components for identification and inspection through its integration with service manual information. Sky360 is currently launching globally. 

Linamar also announced its first Skyjack scissor unit came off the line at its Tianjin, China facility. The company plans to ramp up production in Q1 of 2023, with Hasenfratz noting Skyjack’s new Chinese manufacturing facility is still under construction.