Terex Suddenly Scuttles Iowa Plant

Terex has shut down its Waverly, Iowa, crane-building facility. A local TV news station in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, reported that the company shuttered the plant unexpectedly and plans to expand North American cranes production at its Oklahoma City, Okla., facility, citing costs as the reason to consolidate operations there. The report cited an unnamed Waverly city official who said the city learned of the closure on Tuesday, July 19.

“The continuing objective of the global Terex Cranes business is to be the most customer-responsive company in the industry and our customers’ long-term sustainable business partner,” said Terex Cranes Vice President and General Manager Dean Barley. “To achieve this, especially in today’s challenging economy, we must carefully control our costs and ensure our manufacturing footprint is efficient, so we make the best use of our resources as we build for the future. The transfer of our Waverly product lines to our Oklahoma City location is consistent with our continuing strategy to win in the marketplace by optimizing our manufacturing footprint, investing in the future and aligning our costs with market demands.”

Layoffs will affect roughly 100 production team members, the company said. Approximately 100 jobs will remain in the Waverly area to support Terex Global Business Systems, which the company said is not affected by the plant shutdown. Some 75 nonproduction, commercial office, design/engineering and purchasing team members will remain in place during the transition, Terex said.

The Terex campus in Oklahoma City sits on roughly 100 acres, has close to 700,000 sq.ft. under roof and currently produces five models of the Terex HC Series crawler cranes. Company officials said they plan for an integration of the Waverly products, including 16 RT models, 11 boom truck models and four telescopic truck cranes by September 2016.

Terex said it recently made multimillion-dollar investments in upgrades at the Terex campus in Oklahoma City, so it is ready to handle the additional manufacturing capacity required by the integration of the three product lines previously manufactured in Waverly.

Terex said that the centrally located Oklahoma City campus is ideal for transportation of cranes and raw materials and for shipping finished goods and that it is also within driving distance of the Port of Houston for improved access to import and export.

“By centralizing production in Oklahoma City, we anticipate great efficiency, economies of scale and excellent customer outreach opportunities, so we can increase our customer-responsiveness,” Barley said.