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Non-Tech : Heavy Machinery. CAT DE CSE DDC CUM -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wade who wrote (169)	7/9/1999 9:46:00 AM
From: Paul Berliner	Respond to of 190

Agco confirms plans to idle most North American production By Lyle Niedens, Bridge News Kansas City--July 8--Agco Corp., the third largest U.S. maker of farm equipment, said today it plans to idle most of its North American production in the final months of this year, laying off about 630 workers, as it attempts to cope with the worst downturn in the farm economy in a decade. Judith Czelusniak, an Agco spokeswoman, said that barring an unexpected increase in orders, the company's Independence, Missouri plant will shut down for the year on Aug. 13. Of the 413 workers at the plant, which makes combines, huge machines used to harvest crops, only 113 will remain to service parts, she said. Czelusniak said Agco's plant in Coldwater, Ohio, currently in the midst of a four-week shutdown, will be closed for the year on Oct 1, also barring an increase in orders. Layoffs there will total about 300 workers, she said. Another manufacturing plant in Lockney, Texas, which employs 56 people, will also close for the year on Oct. 1, with about 30 expected to be laid off, Czelusniak said. Agco, which is suffering along with other large agricultural implement manufacturers in the worst U.S. farm economy downturn since the mid-1980s, has already idled production at its Willmar, Minnesota, plant, which makes sprayers and chemical applicators. Since May, half of the facility's 250 employees have been out of work. The shutdowns will leave the Agco's plant in Hesston, Kansas, which makes hay equipment in a venture with Hesston Corp., as its only functioning machinery-making facility later this year. "We will close lines as we need to, to bring inventories in line," Czelusniak said. This has been a tough summer for Agco, which owns such well-known farm machinery brands as such as Massey Ferguson and Gleaner, as farm commodity prices--a leading indicator of farm equipment demand--have plummeted. Agco, which sells 70 percent of its equipment outside the United States, cut 1,400 jobs last year as the U.S. farm economy deteriorated, and scaled back production at plants in England and France. Czelusnia said that demand for its machinery outside the U.S. has begun to stabilize and that the U.S. is currently the only region where some of its production lines are not running. End Please see news.bridge.com for a complete list of Bridge News media rewrites