Toledo, OH-based automotive and truck component manufacturer Dana Corp. is making some plant changes internationally and domestically, along with personnel changes, as part of a massive restructuring effort.
“The intense competitiveness of today’s automotive and truck industries requires continuous cost-reduction and efficiency efforts across the board,” said Dana’s chairman & CEO Mike Burns. “Expanding our manufacturing footprint puts the capability and cost structure in place to support Dana’s business growth worldwide. Most importantly, such operations strengthen our ability to satisfy our customers’ global requirements.”
Among the changes, Dana plans to begin assembling off-highway axles and transmissions in Gyor, Hungary, in the first quarter of 2006 for both European customers and export markets. The facility will initially employ about 50 people in the assembly, testing, painting, and packaging of axles and transmissions for agricultural and construction vehicles.
By December 2006, approximately 500 jobs are going to be eliminated at Dana’s Structural Products plant in Thorold, Ontario, Canada. This reduction results from the expiration of a supply agreement for truck frames, said Burns. With a remaining workforce of 180 people, the plant will continue to serve as a stamping operation supplying multiple Dana facilities.
By mid-2006, the company will also cut as many as 300 jobs from its Traction Products facilities in Salisbury, Cheltenham, and Yennora, Australia – largely due to the expiration of a supply agreement for rear axle modules. With a combined workforce of approximately 850 people at these Australian plants, Dana will continue to produce axles, suspension components, structures, and related modules.
Also, Dana facilities serving its thermal products division in Danville, IN, Sheffield, PA, and Burlington, Ontario, with a total of 200 people are going to be closed, with production from these locations will shift to Dana plants in St. Clair, MI, and Cambridge, Ontario.
Unrelated to restructuring efforts, Bernard “Nick” Cole, president of Dana’s Heavy Vehicle Technologies and Systems Group, is retiring after 37 years with the company. Nick Stanage is replacing him as president for Heavy Vehicle Products. In his expanded role, Stanage is going to continue to lead Dana’s commercial vehicle business, but also assume overall responsibility for coordinating the company’s global off-highway operations.
A supplier of axle, driveshaft, engine, frame, chassis, and transmission technologies, Dana employs 46,000 people in 28 countries, generating sales of $9.1 billion in 2004.
