Freightliner LLC has filed a notice with the North Carolina Dept. of Commerce indicating that it plans to lay off as many as 1,528 workers in July at its Cleveland, NC facility if it does not receive new truck orders by mid-June.
In December, Freightliner announced it would cut as many as 4,000 assembly jobs in North America this year in anticipation of a 40% drop in Class 8 truck sales. Freightliner was contacted by FleetOwner but was unable to comment today on whether the planned layoffs at Cleveland will bring the tally of Freightliner layoffs close to its expectations.
Read Freightliner ready for uncertain 2007.
However, combined retail Class 8 sales among all OEMs in the U.S. dropped 45% to 13,373 units in April, according to WardsAuto.com. Class 8 sales in the U.S. in the first four months of 2007 totaled 64,489, a 28% drop from the same period in 2006, WardsAuto.com reported.
Experts anticipate that truck sales in the second quarter will deteriorate compared with the first quarter.
Read Truck sales hit the floor.
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