Western Star shuts down South Carolina plant

CHARLESTON, S.C. (Aug. 1, 2000) — Western Star Trucks has closed its assembly plant in Charleston, S.C., for at least three weeks and laid off its production line workers indefinitely.

The Charleston Post and Courier reported that employees of the plant were told Friday about the closing, which is blamed on weak demand for class-8 trucks.

Western Star opened the plant late last year.

“We hope to get back into operation at the end of the three-week period and back to previous production levels, as soon as the industry gets back to some normalcy,” Perry Lubbers, manager of the Western Star plant, told the paper.

Western Star’s 285,000-square-foot assembly plant was designed to turn out 20,000 vehicles a year but has never approached that level of production. Western Star temporarily closed its Canadian assembly plant earlier this year, just as it was moving ahead with production in the Charleston plant.

Last month, Freightliner LLC announced plans to buy Western Star, including its production facilities, for more than $620 million. The agreement is expected to be finalized by the end of the year.