MARSHALL, Ill. — Stalled new car sales around the world are causing more job losses in the Wabash Valley.
Auto parts maker TRW Automotive in Marshall is laying off about 60 workers. This follows layoffs of 35 workers just a few months ago.
Second-shift employees learned of the layoffs Wednesday night. First-shift workers were informed Thursday morning, said John Wilkerson, senior communications manager for TRW, at the company headquarters in Michigan.
Most of the job cuts will affect machine operators. However, some cuts will affect technicians and warehouse employees, he said.
“We’re doing all we can,” Wilkerson said of the company’s efforts to prevent job losses in the face of weak consumer demand for new cars. “You hate to see people being laid off.”
TRW’s plant in Marshall, which will still employ some 700 people, makes electronics for automotive safety features, such as airbags, Wilkerson said. While TRW sells some replacement parts to new car dealers, most of its parts are installed in new cars.
“It’s a relatively high tech business there in Marshall,” he said.
North American new car sales have been sagging for several years, but recently the bottom seems to have virtually dropped out. February was the worst month for new car sales in 27 years, according to CBS News. General Motors sales were down 53 percent from February 2008 while Ford and Chrysler sales were down more than 40 percent for the same period.
The Marshall TRW plant has been able to secure significant sales of parts to Japanese companies Toyota and Honda, Wilkerson said, However, even sales for those companies are down sharply this year. Toyota’s new car sales were down 40 percent in February compared with the year before while Honda’s sales were down 38 percent.
“Nobody is immune,” Wilkerson said.
For several years, TRW was able to make up for lost sales in North America by increasing its business in Europe, Asia and South America, Wilkerson explained. Now, customer demand is very weak in those markets as well, he said.
The downturn in new car sales in the past six to eight months has been “much deeper than we’ve seen in the past,” Wilkerson said. The company, which has more than 200 facilities around the world, has seen its stock price fall dramatically in the past two years. In May 2007, TRW’s stock was trading at more than $41 per share. It closed Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange at $1.74 per share.
TRW employs about 18,500 people in North America and around 65,000 people worldwide, according to the company’s Web site, www.trw.com.
It is hard to know what the future might bring for TRW and the Marshall plant, which is the largest employer in Clark County. A lot depends upon the availability of consumer credit, Wilkerson said: “We just have to see how the economic stimulus and other things go. It’s the economic climate. We’ve just got to get through this.”
Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.
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