Mack Trucks adding workers to Lower Macungie plant
Production is up for iconic truckmaker as industry bounces back.
April 27, 2011|By Tyrone Richardson, OF THE MORNING CALL
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Denise Sanchez/Morning Call file photo
Demand is growing for Mack Trucks and the company's Lower Macungie production facility is adding jobs to meet it.
By summer, the truckmaker expects to have a workforce comparable to the number it employed before the Great Recession cut demand and prompted a series of layoffs, Mack spokesman John Walsh said Wednesday.
"In response to the uptick in demand, we're in the process of hiring about 50 people at our Macungie Assembly Operations to support a rate increase effective June 1," Walsh said in an email.
Mack will fill the positions through a pool of candidates gathered last year when the company hired 200 workers for the Lower Macungie plant to meet increasing demand, Walsh said. The facility at 7000 Alburtis Road produces all rigs for Mack, which moved its headquarters from Allentown to Greensboro, N.C., in 2009.
Mack produced 1,909 rigs in March, its strongest single month of production since October 2007, when it made 2,001 rigs.
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www.promab.comWalsh said that while demand for construction vehicles is still lagging, Mack is benefiting from increased demand for highway rigs, which pull trailers and are used in shipping. The company, whose trucks cost between $80,000 and $150,000, recently signed some large contracts, including an order for 475 rigs for UPS.
"While demand on the vocational side — construction trucks in particular — remains well below traditional levels, there are initial signs of improvement, as customers in certain applications, like natural gas and oil production, begin to replace older equipment," Walsh said.
Mack is not the only truckmaker to benefit from the increased demand. Freightliner is adding more than 600 workers to its North Carolina production facility, according to published reports.
Analysts have said truckmakers will continue to be busy as transportation companies replace aging fleets.
"Orders have been relatively strong for the last few months so there is a backlog of orders that has been expanding and that gives them the chance to increase output," said Chris Brady of Commercial Motor Vehicles Consulting, a New York research firm. "When you see them hire additional workers it is because of a higher backlog to sustain output at a higher level."