International Truck and Engine Corp. is closing its Chatham, Ontario assembly plant on July 18.

The company made the announcement to employees Friday, telling them the closure was a necessary step to address competitive market conditions.
"We understand that this is not an easy time for anyone affected by this announcement," said Steve Keate, president of the company's truck group. "Even though we've been talking about this with employees for months, we realize that announcing a date signals the finality of closure. We sincerely thank our Chatham employees for their years of dedicated service of building quality trucks."
Keate said the action, along with others, better positions International to profitably serve its heavy truck customers and contributes to the company's goal of profitability over the business cycle.
"The decision to close the plant was never about the superior service our Chatham employees provide or the high quality trucks they assemble," Keate said.
In December 2001, International announced that it needed to find additional cost reductions to make the plant competitive, and followed up with a formal "consideration to close" letter on April 5, 2002. In July 2002, the company reached a two-year contract with the Canadian Auto Workers union, which said the company would not close the plant before June 1, 2003. Unable to achieve necessary cost savings, International announced its plans to close the Chatham plant on Oct. 17, 2002.
The Chatham plant is currently operating on one shift with about 900 employees. In addition to active employees, there are approximately 1,300 union employees on layoff status.
Production of International 9000i Series Class 8 trucks will be transitioned from Chatham to the company's Escobedo, Mexico assembly plant. The Escobedo plant, launched in 1998, features the latest assembly technology and has a strong track record. The plant is both ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 certified.
International Truck and Engine Corporation is the operating company of Navistar International Corp.