Truck-maker Moves Affect Scrap Generation

Scrap recyclers in Cleveland and in British Columbia, Canada, have seen two scrap-generating truck-building plants close up shop, while Portland, Ore., gained some truck-making capacity.

Western Star Trucks, based in Willoughby, Ohio, recently closed down its truck assembly facility in Kelowna, British Columbia, consolidating production from there into a 15,000 square foot building in Portland, Ore.

According to Houston-based Industrial Information Resources, Western Star has invested $16 million to revamp the Portland truck manufacturing plant owned by parent company Freightliner LLC, a division of DaimlerChyrsler.

The Portland plant has been operating since 1969, producing heavy-duty trucks and busses under the American La France, Freightliner, SelecTrucks, Sterling Trucks, Thomas Built, Unimog and Western Star names.

Another truck parts maker, Midland Steel Products Co., Cleveland, is in the process of closing its truck frame-making plants.

The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January and has been unable to put together a reorganization plan to continue operations past April, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Midland Steel has a frame-making plant in Cleveland as well as operations in nearby Solon, Ohio, and in Garland, Texas.

The company has said that the decline in heavy-duty truck production has hurt its business, and also blamed high domestic steel prices caused by tariffs on imported steel, according to the Plain Dealer report.

Midland Steel had been a supplier of truck frames to General Motors Corp., Navistar and other truck makers, and was reportedly the last American-owned, unionized heavy-duty truck frame maker in the U.S.