Paccar To Cut 10% Of Work Force At Ohio Plant

Commercial truck maker Paccar Inc. (PCAR) plans to lay off 10% of the work force at its Chillicothe, Ohio, assembly plant in response to weakening orders for the company's Kenworth brand trucks.

The plant's manager said orders have dropped about by 10% recently, causing the company to scale back production at the central Ohio plant, according to a report Wednesday in the Chillicothe Gazette newspaper. A spokesman for Kenworth confirmed the work force reduction, but declined to divulge how many people work at the plant or the number of workers being furloughed.

The newspaper said 1,000 people have been hired at the plant in the past two years as the company ramped up production following a prolonged slump in truck demand. Washington-based Paccar also makes Peterbilt trucks.

Industrywide truck sales surged in 2011, but truck orders have slowed recently. March orders for heavy-duty trucks in North America dropped 31% from a year ago to 20,000 vehicles, according to preliminary figures from market forecaster ACT Research. Orders were down 11% in February.

Most industry analysts characterized the recent declines as temporary, citing strong order backlogs for heavy-duty trucks. Paccar's layoff announcement Wednesday is likely to fuel anxiety about a broader pullback in truck sales, which are typically correlated to economically sensitive freight volumes.

In recent trading, Paccar's stock was down 2.5% at $42.51 a share. Rival truck maker Navistar International (NAV) was down 1.7% at $36.65 a share.

-By Bob Tita, Dow Jones Newswires; 312-750-4129; [e-mail]