Establishments primarily engaged in the manufacture of truck and bus bodies or in the assembly of completed trucks and buses on purchased chassis are classified in SIC 3713: Truck and Bus Bodies. Establishments primarily engaged in the manufacture of truck trailers are classified in SIC 3715: Truck Trailers.
Truck sales tend to be volatile because they are subject to cyclical changes in the overall economy. During the recessive economy of the early 2000s, trucking companies postponed new purchases to waylay costs and shore up demand.
This industry covers establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing truck trailers, truck trailer chassis for sale separately, detachable trailer bodies (cargo containers) for sale separately, and detachable trailer (cargo container) chassis for sale separately.
Going into the twenty-first century, the U.S. motor home industry was seeing some growth.
The aerospace industry consists of space vehicles, space propulsion parts, guided missiles, aircraft, aircraft engines, and aircraft parts. The value of all products and services of the aircraft industry alone was more than 85 percent of the aerospace industry total in the early 2000s.
The total value of complete aircraft engines was approximately $6.4 billion in 2002, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
In 2001, the miscellaneous aircraft parts and auxiliary equipment manufacturing industry employed 123,000 workers, earning an annual payroll of $6.4 billion. Of these, 71,600 worked in production, earning $3.3 billion.
Thanks in large part to President Clinton's five-point national shipbuilding initiative, the shipbuilding industry achieved a remarkable turnaround during the mid-1990s. However, in recent years virtually all merchant tonnage built in American shipyards was destined for domestic customers under a subsidy program or under the protection of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920 (the Jones Act), which specifies that all inter-coastal traffic must move in U.S.-built vessels.
In the second half of the 1990s, the recreational boating industry in the United States was continuing to recover from a devastating industry-wide slump that began in the late 1980s and continued into the early 1990s. During the industry recession, stretching from 1988 through 1992, constant-dollar product shipments declined at a compound annual rate of approximately 15 percent.
In 2001 the railroad equipment industry reported total shipments of approximately $8.6 billion to the nation's rail systems. That year, the industry employed 34,719 persons, down from 35,578 in 2000.
In one form or another, the two-wheeled personal vehicle has played an important role in U.S. transportation systems.
In 2001, guided missile and space vehicle manufacturers shipped approximately $13.6 billion worth of goods. This represented an increase in shipments from 2000 but down from the highs of the late 1990s.
In 1999 there were approximately 806 U.S. establishments in this industry.
The end of the Cold War has reduced U.S. tank production to almost nothing.
Shipments of all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), snowmobiles, golf carts, and personal watercraft totaled more than $4.5 billion in 1997. This was a sharp increase from the industry's level of shipments only five years earlier and, in several categories, represented gains of 100 percent or better.