Sypris Solutions Inc., the parent company of forger Sypris Technologies, will sell or close its plant in Louisville, KY, next year. According to local reports and to an investors’ brief, Sypris Solutions approved plans to determine “strategic options” for the Broadway Avenue plant, which may include a sale, reduction in operations, and/or closure.
A Sypris source stated the final decision on sale or closing would take place later, and that the plant would continue to operate for about six months.
The parent company could not estimate the costs related to its eventual decision on the matter.
The +580,000-sq.ft. Louisville plant currently has about 150 workers. It specializes in hot forging and machining axle shafts, trailer beams, and a range of other parts for automotive, truck, off-highway, farm equipment, mining, and energy markets.
A Sypris Technologies plant in Toluca, Mexico, northwest of Mexico City, forges and machines commercial vehicle I-beams, knuckles, gears, pinions and shafts. On its website, Sypris describes the Toluca plant as “well positioned to take advantage of the continued expansion of manufacturing in Mexico.”
In 2015, Sypris sold a plant Morganton, NC, plant to Meritor Inc., which was described at the time as the largest buyer of the plant’s machined forgings and castings, and trailer beams.
The Louisville plant, according to a company representative contacted for one local report, is challenged by the high cost of manufacturing for exports, due to the increasingly strong U.S. currency, with the related and parallel shift of car and truck assembly operations to Mexico.
In its recent Q3 2016 statement, the company reported its revenues for Sypris Technologies decreased 46.8% to $14.8 million, compared to $27.8 million for Q3 2015, “primarily as a result of softness in the commercial vehicle industry.” Also for Q3, Sypris Technologies reported a loss of $400,000, compared to profit of $2.0 million for Q3 2015.
