Western Star To Build Plant In S.C

Western Star Trucks will build a new truck manufacturing plant in North Charleston, S.C., in an effort to increase its heavy duty truck assembly capacity.

Canadian-based Western Star said it has orders for more than 6,600 of its new Class 8 truck models. The company increased production to 29 trucks per day at its truck plant in Kelowna, British Columbia, and is investigating methods to further increase output, officials said.

Construction on the 330,000-square-foot facility is expected to begin in early 1999 with production beginning approximately one year later. The plant will employ 200 people and cost C$40 million to build.

President Robert Enright said the expansion will improve Western Star’s access to U.S. markets and facilitate growth for the company.

Western Star Trucks Holdings also builds trucks through its ERF subsidiary in the United Kingdom and supplies transit buses through its Orion Bus Industries subsidiary in Mississauga, Ontario and Oriskany, N.Y.

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