Officials at DaimlerChrysler are likely to severely cut production and slash more jobs as they try to return Freightliner to profitability by the end of the year.

Published reports indicate that Freightliner officials have readied a restructuring plan and that it will be implemented by this fall.
Freightliner is one of the company's "most difficult holdings at the moment," DaimlerChrysler Chief Financial Officer Manfred Gentz said at a talk in Frankfurt, Germany, reports The Detroit News. Gentz noted that Freightliner already has reduced fixed costs by 22 percent and material costs by as much as 3 percent in a bid to return to profitability.
Possible elements of the turnaround plan, according to Stark's Truck & Off-Highway Ledger, include:

• sharp cuts in medium-duty truck assembly at Freightliner's Mt. Holly, N.C., unionized plant;

• elimination of shifts at heavy truck plants in Cleveland, N.C., and Portland, Ore.;

• consolidation or elimination of Sterling Truck Corp. operations in Ohio;

• more temporary suspensions of truck assembly activity through the end of the year;

• possible sale of a Western Star plant in North Charleston, S.C.

Freightliner President Jim Hebe left the company last month after Freightliner's truck and bus sales dropped by 50 percent during the first quarter of the year and losses mounted. He was replaced by turnaround expert and former Freightliner CFO Rainer Schmueckle.