Tenneco to close Nebraska OE ride control plant

ERJ staff report (TB)

Lake Forest, Illinois - As part of efforts to restructure its operations globally, Tenneco Inc. said it plans to close its original equipment ride control plant in Cozad, Nebraska.

Gregg Sherrill, Tenneco chairman and ceo, said the company sincerely regrets “the impact this action will have on our employees at Cozad. However, we now feel that industry conditions have stabilised enough for us to move forward on our original plans to consolidate our ride control capacity” in the US, “which we need to do in order to strengthen our long-term competitiveness in this critically important market.”

Tenneco-which expects to complete the closure in the fourth quarter 2010-employs 460 hourly and 40 salaried workers at the plant. They will receive transitional assistance.

The Lake Forest-based company expects to begin transferring current customer business to other ride control operations later this year, including to plants in Hartwell, Georgia, Paragould, Arkansas, and Celaya, Mexico.

Originally Tenneco announced it planned to close one of its OE ride control plants in the US as part of a global restructuring announcement last October, but postponed the action in January to preserve cash during the height of the global economic crisis.

It estimated the Nebraska plant closing will generate $8 million in annualised cost savings once completed-incremental savings to the $58 million restructuring program announced in 2008.

The firm expects to record up to $20 million in restructuring and restructuring-related charges-approximately $14 million in cash-and will record $11 million of these charges in the third quarter 2009, and the remainder in subsequent quarters through third quarter 2010.

Tenneco markets products primarily under the Monroe, Walker, Gillet and CleviteElastomer brands.?

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Tenneco to close Nebraska OE ride control plant from Tire Business (a Crain publication)