Intermet announces plans to close Havana Foundry.

Intermet Corp., Troy, Mich., announced plans to close its Havana Foundry, Havana, Ill., during the second quarter of this year. According to the firm, closure is necessary to rationalize excess production capacity and reduce costs. The facility currently employs 205 people and manufactures ductile iron castings for the automotive industry.

"This has been a difficult but necessary decision for the company and we regret the effect it will have on our employees," said Gary Ruff, president and CEO of Intermet. "Based on studies conducted on the Havana plant and other Intermet foundries during the past year, we determined 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.

Havana Foundry had sales of $26 million in 2003. Intermet expects to retain all of the foundry's revenue and consolidate the plant's equipment and products into other existing Intermet foundries.

"The closure is a result of an industry-wide overcapacity situation and is not a reflection on the workforce or management team in Havana," said Todd Heavin, vice president of ferrous metals operations at Intermet. "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.