Volvo Winds Down Pennsylvania Mack Plant

[kscarbel2]

Transport Topics  /  December 19, 2019

Volvo is shifting its Mack plant into a lower gear, a slowdown that likely will lead to layoffs at Mack Trucks’ assembly plant in Lower Macungie Township, Pennsylvania.

“We have communicated to our employees that we’ll have to adapt production to reduced demand sometime in the first quarter of 2020,” Mack spokesman Christopher Heffner said on Dec. 18. “Unfortunately, we do expect that this will mean layoffs, but it’s too soon to say how many or when.”

In addition, Heffner said, Mack is planning two down weeks at the plant near the end of the first quarter to meet the lower demand.

Another two down weeks — which means a majority of the plant will be on temporary layoff — will come early in the second quarter, allowing Mack to complete work on its chassis-insourcing project, he said.

The news of additional down weeks and potential layoffs is not unexpected at the plant, which built its employment up to 2,400 workers as orders flew in during 2018 and production surged through much of this year as Mack chipped away at an order backlog.

The last significant layoff at the Mack plant came in early 2016, when the company laid off about 400 of the facility’s then-1,850 workers.

Walt Smith, president of United Auto Workers Local 677, which represents the plant’s employees, did not return a call seeking comment.

Union members, which number more than 3,500 across six Mack facilities in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Florida, have been back at work nearly two months after a 12-day strike in October over job security and concerns over health benefits. The members ratified a four-year labor agreement in early November, a contract that maintains health care premiums and protects truck production in Lower Macungie.

Because the strike idled production for two weeks, Heffner said in late November that Mack canceled its two previously scheduled down weeks in the fourth quarter “to catch up on production.”

But now, Mack is adjusting to market conditions.

One market analyst is projecting U.S. heavy-duty truck production to end this year at about 287,000, which includes around 211,000 highway trucks and 76,000 vocational trucks.

In 2020, truck production is expected to drop to 180,000, which includes a projected 121,000 highway trucks and 59,000 vocational trucks.

Projections for this year and 2020 are both lower than estimates a couple of months ago.

Volvo Trucks North America (VTNA) has announced plans to lay off about 700 employees in January at its Dublin, Va., assembly plant, a facility that has more than 3,000 employees. Also, Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) in October cut about 900 jobs at two Freightliner plants in North Carolina as the market began to level off.

Mack’s parent company, Gothenburg, Sweden-based Volvo Group, on Dec. 18 announced it was selling its UD Trucks division to Isuzu Motors for about $2.3 billion, the latest example of consolidation within the industry.

The sale of the UD Trucks to Isuzu is part of Volvo’s plans to form “a strategic alliance” with Isuzu “to capture the opportunities in the ongoing transformation of the industry.”

 

[RoadwayR]

Strategic alliance with Isuzu?  That would be interesting.

[Bullheaded]

I gets depressing looking at the antique and classic Mack section of the forum and seeing all the dominant heavy haulers Mack once had. Like the DM800's to the CL350ST to the M Series off road trucks. Sure you can say those markets have shrank to the point of being unprofitable. But Western Star and KW seem to be doing OK with it. Especially now that Mack HANDED over all their customers to them.

Just look at the Western Star 6900XD line and all their partnerships with body companies to equip them.

https://www.westernstartrucks.com/Trucks/6900/

Tell any of the loggers here to buy a Mack and they will laugh you out of the forest. All the heavy float and logging operations around here that had CL700's and Titan's all have Stars now.

The Titan could have made it.......IF they gave customers what they wanted at a price that was comparable to Star and KW.

[HeavyGunner]

Western Star offers some good looking trucks with what seems like in any configuration you could want. 

[41chevy]

I feel Volvo is doing this on purpose to Mack by squeezing the last bit of life out of it Seems to me they never had any real interest beyond the dealer network (which IMO they damaged pretty well too) . I hope that it gets bought and it is not too late to turn it around but deep down I have little hope.

[Bullheaded]

Ya. They will build you a 6900XD off road with planetary rears and an Galaxy stand up sleeper if you want it. Want twin steer on that too? Sure. Want 600 h.p. and 2050 torque? No problem.

Hell, up until just last year they would still give you a tier 3 Series 60 engine for off road use.

[Bullheaded]

8 hours ago, 41chevy said:

I feel Volvo is doing this on purpose to Mack by squeezing the last bit of life out of it Seems to me they never had any real interest beyond the dealer network (which IMO they damaged pretty well too) . I hope that it gets bought and it is not too late to turn it around but deep down I have little hope.

Ya, notice how many prominent Mack dealers now have more Volvo signage than anything. My local dealer Mack North....they even made them remove Mack from the name. Now they are All North.

There are many other companies that got swallowed up by Volvo that I won't get in to, but what they have done to Mack and Champion Motor Graders really strikes a nerve with me.

[41chevy]

8 hours ago, Bullheaded said:

Ya, notice how many prominent Mack dealers now have more Volvo signage than anything. My local dealer Mack North....they even made them remove Mack from the name. Now they are All North.

There are many other companies that got swallowed up by Volvo that I won't get in to, but what they have done to Mack and Champion Motor Graders really strikes a nerve with me.

Gabrelli Mack has 4 or 5 dealerships  between them all maybe 2 Macks in the delivery line, but the lots full of Petes and K.W.s. Last year I speced out an Anthem for pulling a low boy with a dozer  or granite blocks for break waters. Dealer flat out told me to go for a Western Star or a Pete because the Mack with all the specs I wanted still did not have a heavy chassis as an option, only the "road" chassis was available. I checked with the Mack dealer in Richmond and got the same story. They both said Volvo only wanted OTR sales and heavy units to be Volvo.  Ended up getting a pair of AM General ex mil power units. Sad state that even the dealers feel screwed. 

[Bullheaded]

I think all Volvo has Mack for is to sell tee shirts and online merchandise to those of us that remember what Mack once was.

[Bullheaded]

Here's the site specific to the XD Off Road. It shows all their alliances with the different body makers.

https://www.westernstartrucks.com/Trucks/XD/

This could have been Mack.

[41chevy]

1 hour ago, Bullheaded said:

Here's the site specific to the XD Off Road. It shows all their alliances with the different body makers.

https://www.westernstartrucks.com/Trucks/XD/

This could have been Mack.

And now Autocar is taking away the sanitation and Concrete pump market from Mack. Terrible for the Volvo Board to be so indifferent to the N.American market.

[james j neiweem]

Volvo- sell Mack and leave the USA altogether.  The only smart move you've made is selling Autocar and that was government mandated.

[Mack Technician]

1 hour ago, james j neiweem said:

Volvo- sell Mack and leave the NORTH AMERICA altogether.  The only smart move you've made is selling Autocar and that was government mandated.

Don't mind me Jim...….Can't leave the Canadians to deal with a mass exodus of Elof and Ole's storming through their South Border, then they'd have to build a wall too. 

[41chevy]

10 hours ago, Mack Technician said:

Don't mind me Jim...….Can't leave the Canadians to deal with a mass exodus of Elof and Ole's storming through their South Border, then they'd have to build a wall too. 

No wall, a few hundred of my baby cannibal snowmen would stop en dead.

[Mack Technician]

6 hours ago, 41chevy said:

No wall, a few hundred of my baby cannibal snowmen would stop en dead.

What’s the cannibal snowman?

You in Virginia building sandcastles, or up in Maine pounding Moxies and building snow creatures to terrify the neighborhood? 

[41chevy]

Maine clearing land in Moxie land ☃️

[41180]

On 12/19/2019 at 11:55 PM, 41chevy said:

Gabrelli Mack has 4 or 5 dealerships  between them all maybe 2 Macks in the delivery line, but the lots full of Petes and K.W.s. Last year I speced out an Anthem for pulling a low boy with a dozer  or granite blocks for break waters. Dealer flat out told me to go for a Western Star or a Pete because the Mack with all the specs I wanted still did not have a heavy chassis as an option, only the "road" chassis was available. I checked with the Mack dealer in Richmond and got the same story. They both said Volvo only wanted OTR sales and heavy units to be Volvo.  Ended up getting a pair of AM General ex mil power units. Sad state that even the dealers feel screwed. 

I know volvo has screwed mack up but i know you can spec a heavy anthem or pinnacle or granite tractor to do what you wanted,you can get atleast a 10mm thick frame same as a 3/8 rail and up to 16k front and 46k rears in the anthem or pinnacle and heavier stuff in the granites , there is some misimformation out there . Not saying mack isnt basically a shell but you can still buyvsome heavy duty macks 

Edited December 23, 2019 by 41180

[41chevy]

1 minute ago, 41180 said:

I know volvo has screwed mack up but i know you can spec a heavy anthem or pinnacle or granite tractor to do what you wanted,you can get atleast a 10mm thick feaim same as a 3/8 rail and up to 16k front and 46k rears in the anthem or pinnacle and heavier stuff in the granites , there is some misimformation out there . Not saying mack isnt basically a shell but you can still buyvsome heavy duty macks 

I agree, but what I spec'd out on the Mack site and what the dealers say is offered  (at least the three I dealt with) are two different things. I know what I wanted is made because Shaws in Maine has 5 of them in their yards MP8 445HE, Maxi torque, Dana-Spicer  rears on Hendrikson HN @ 52,000 suspension . It seems that many of the multi brand dealers just want to sell Petes ,KW's and such.

[41180]

Yeah ballard is the best mack dealer in new england or atleast they were , because they only sell mack .thats where we bought our titans . 25 yrs ago the other new england mack dealers wanted to sell us western star. 

[james j neiweem]

I am guessing the Mack salesmen don't want to be bothered unless you pay them up front. They don't want to go through the effort if you are just shopping around. At a multi dealership sales people will push what they can make the most money on. They may have better incentives to sell other manufacturers products. Any Mack sales people out there with additional info.?

Edited December 25, 2019 by james j neiweem