LISLE, IL – Navistar, Inc. responded to an inquiry today by The Quad-Cities Daily as to the status of its Barton Riverfront Industrial Park facility. Steve Schrier, Manager, Corporate Communications for Navistar reported to us that the company is still in the process of restoring itself to a profitable condition, and until that happens any new capital investment at Barton will be put on hold.
Here is his statement:
“Navistar continues its parts fabrication operations at the Barton facility. Navistar has, for the time being, put on hold its plans to transition additional production to the facility. Any new activity at the Alabama plant requiring capital investment is being put on hold due to the company’s efforts to control costs and deliver positive financial results.”
The parts fabrication work at Barton to which Schrier was referring, is work being done to complete contracts for rail cars. These contracts were entered into while the assembly plant was operated by Retirement Systems of Alabama.
As we reported earlier, Navistar’s tribulation started with the introduction of its new 13 liter-class truck engine. The motor did not meet EPA requirements. Navistar, for a number of years, relied on already banked EPA pollution credits that it cashed in with every engine it delivered. Once those credits ran out, the company was required to pay a nearly-$2 thousand fine on each engine it delivered.
The company is in the process of developing modifications to the engine which are expected to be in place in 2013. This should help immensly with the company’s efforts at returning to profitability. Schrier said that Navistar will be releasing information on the new engine launch shortly.
