Intermet Closing Illinois Plant

Jan. 12, 2004
Havana Foundry produces automotive ductile-iron castings

Intermet Corp. will close its Havana, IL, foundry in the second quarter, it announced, to “rationalize” surplus production capacity and lower overhead costs. Company officials planned to meet with the plant’s 205 employees to detail their plans. City and state officials have already been notified, Intermet said.

The Havana foundry produces ductile iron castings for automotive customers. The plant’s equipment and product lines will be reassigned to other Intermet plants.

Gary Ruff, Intermet president and CEO, called the decision to close the plant “difficult but necessary.”

"Based on studies conducted on the Havana plant and other Intermet foundries during the past year, we determined at the end of 2003 that this was the most effective course of action to better align our available capacity with the market, and make our overall ferrous-foundry cost structure more competitive," Ruff stated.

Todd Heavin, v.p. - Ferrous Metals operations, said, "The closure is a result of an industry-wide overcapacity situation and is not a reflection on the workforce or management team in Havana. In fact, the plant has demonstrated continuous improvement operationally and is consistently meeting customer quality and delivery requirements. However, there is an immediate need to reduce the number of our U.S. ferrous-casting facilities to improve capacity utilization and optimize the performance of our ductile-iron foundry group."