The Morning Call: Mack to lay off 450
Mack Trucks announced plans Friday to lay off more than 40 percent of the workers at its Lower Macungie Township plant, as the highly cyclical truck manufacturing industry heads into another downturn.
Well, not exactly, kiddies.
The Allentown company said it will cut 450 of 1,040 workers at the plant, which makes construction and garbage trucks. The first of the layoffs will take place before Thanksgiving, and the rest will follow in 2007...
Why?
The recent surge in demand was driven by new U.S. emission standards that are expected to increase prices as much as $7,500 per $100,000 truck as of Jan. 1.
Customers have rushed to buy cheaper trucks before they are taken off the market. With their fleets replenished, there will be little demand for the new, more expensive trucks next year.
Retarded vote-buying politicians and pseudo-science: always a deadly combination.
''This is very much a regulatory-driven buying cycle, and it's specific to the truck industry,'' said Jim Mele, editor of Fleet Owner magazine.
The resulting downturn will last at least through fall of next year, but perhaps longer, depending on the economy, he said.
''They've been going full tilt, and now sales are just going to drop off the table,'' he said. ''That's a tough thing to manage.''
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