Freightliner announced this week it will soon lay off a total of 900 employees from its Cleveland and Mount Holly, N.C., production facilities. The news was first reported by local television station WBTV.
Freightliner attributes the sluggish new truck market for the layoffs, which are scheduled at both locations on October 14.
The company told the station Tuesday “Following a red-hot North American truck market of record sales and production volumes over the last 12 months, the market is now clearly returning to normal market levels. Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) will have to adjust its production output in line with lower market demand.”
After setting an all-time industry high of nearly 53,000 new Class 8 truck orders last August, the industry barely surpassed the 10,000 unit mark last month. Both ACT Research and FTR report the Class 8 market fell to below 20,000 units per month in January and has averaged less than 14,000 units per month throughout 2019.
