Caterpillar announces Morganton facility closing, 110 jobs impacted

MORGANTON, N.C. — A Morganton company announced it will be closing its doors within 12 to 18 months.

Caterpillar announced Thursday it will close the Morganton, North Carolina facility, where it manufactures engine and undercarriage components. This closure impacts 110 positions.

Caterpillar said some of the production from that facility will shift to other Caterpillar facilities.

The rest of the positions will transition to outside suppliers.

Production is schedule to continue into 2017, Caterpillar said.

The final transition is expected to be completed within the next 12 to 18 months.

Caterpillar said it is continuing to take costs out of its business to align with lower demand as part of an aggressive and significant restructuring initiative first announced in September 2015.

These actions are resulting in substantial cost reduction for the company in these tough market conditions, Caterpillar said in a statement.

As part of those global restructuring efforts, the company today notified its workforce of five facility closures and one building demolition of significant manufacturing square footage across five U.S. states.

Other facilities impacted are Mossville, Illinois and Oxford, Mississippi, and Caterpillar said they will consolidate Newberry and Ridgeway South Carolina facilities.

They went on to say in their statement that the the company’s decision enables the company to be more efficient and better utilize its manufacturing assets. The closures will result in a reduction of about 820 positions in total.

Cox Media Group