Paccar’s Miss. Engine Plant to Open in December

Paccar Inc. has hired 90 workers for a truck engine plant in Mississippi, and the company expects to begin producing engines in December, the Associated Press reported.

The Columbus, Miss., plant will manufacture 12.9-liter engines for Paccar U.S. units Kenworth Truck Co. and Peterbilt Motors Co., and European unit DAF Trucks NV, AP said.

Plant manager Lex Lemmers told The Commercial Dispatch, a Mississippi newspaper, that workers were being trained to assemble the engines, and said the plant has been installing and testing equipment over the past few months.

Paccar broke ground on the 400,000-square-foot facility in 2007 for $400 million and agreed to provide 500 jobs by 2013, AP said.

Paccar, which had its new engine certified by the California Air Resources Board in June, has been importing the engines from Netherlands-based DAF until U.S. demand picks up enough to justify opening the new factory. (Click here for previous coverage.)

Paccar officials did not immediately respond to calls from Transport Topics.