Terex Cranes president Kevin Bradley said: "While the economy is beginning to improve, manufacturing capacity is greater than needed to meet foreseeable market demand. The decision to end the plant operation was not an easy one. However, we have determined that discontinuing production at Wilmington is the right decision for our business as we continue to consolidate our manufacturing footprint, consistent with the needs of our global customer base.”
Vertikal Comment
Terex has been looking at rationalising its crane production facilities for some time and had recently suggested that key plants, such as Zweibrücken in Germany and Waverly, Iowa were sacrosanct. Wilmington, given its marginal and less critical role was always the most likely to close, although local politicians worked hard to provide a suite of incentives to try and tempt the company to stay.
Terex range of production locations are largely the result of acquisitions rather than choice or economic rationale. And as with any business built this way it certainly has excess space, if not capacity. With the market picking up now is the best time to be taking such decisions and the company will certainly benefit from the rationalization.
