Freightliner to Cut Jobs at Medium-Duty Plant in N.C.

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reightliner LLC said Tuesday it was going to lay off 260 workers at its Mt Holly, N.C., medium-duty truck manufacturing plant.

Freightliner said in a statement it was making the move “to align output with a slowing market demand for medium duty trucks in the U.S. and Canada.”

The facility’s daily production rate at the plant will be trimmed to 100 trucks per day on Sept. 26, a reduction of 17% from the current 120 per day.

urrently, 1,540 employees represented by the United Auto Workers assemble the Freightliner-branded line of Business Class M2 vehicles designed for a variety of urban, short haul, and vocational applications.

The furlough of these 260 positions will return the plant to the employment level of August 2004, Freightliner said.

"While the Freightliner Business Class M2's share of the medium duty truck market in the U.S. and Canada has increased from 10.8% in 2004 to 11.5% year to date, the recent growth in this segment has slowed, hindered by rising diesel prices and economic uncertainties,” said Roger Nielsen, Freightliner's chief operating officer.

“However, orders for heavy duty Class 8 trucks and large fleet sales continue to perform strongly," he said.

Freightliner said it employs close to 9,000 people in North Carolina and is a major customer of automotive components manufactured by several industries in the state.