VTNA Says Cuts at New River Plant Pushed Back to September
Volvo Trucks North America, a unit of Volvo Group, said its next reduction at its New River Valley Plant in Dublin, Virginia, will affect about 300 employees and occur in September instead of August, as previously announced.
The clarification given to Transport Topics came on the heels of Volvo’s second quarter earnings report this month, which said production in the group’s North American manufacturing system “will be lowered further to meet the lower demand and allow for inventory reduction at dealers.”
VTNA spokesman John Mies clarified for TT the report did not mean there will be new reductions.
Instead, “We have confirmed that the previously announced reduction will be implemented in early September rather than August ... we now expect it to be about 300 people,” Mies said.
He described the change as simply a matter of “scheduling, and having better visibility as time goes on, versus our initial estimate back in May.”
In its latest earnings report, Volvo Group lowered its 2016 North American total market forecast to 240,000 units from 250,000 in the first quarter “and this reduction at the plant is a step in our continued adaptation to market conditions,” Mies said.
