CLEVELAND (Oct. 12) — Eaton Corp. said it will consolidate two plants in its hydraulics thermoplastic hose business it acquired this past April from Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, and also move some jobs to Mexico.
Most hose extrusion and reinforcement work from the Mantua, Ohio, plant will be relocated to an existing facility in Aurora. Mantua's assembly work and remaining extrusion lines will move to an Eaton plant in Reynosa, Mexico. The harness, hydraulic and coil air assembly operations at the Aurora unit also will move to Reynosa.
Eaton plans to close the Mantua factory, which employs 193, by the end of 2007.
The Aurora facility employs 161, and 52 of those jobs will move to Reynosa. However, 115 positions will transfer to Aurora from Mantua, the company said.
Eaton's William VanArsdale, vice president and president-Hydaulics operations, said the consolidation of the Mantua and Aurora sites was needed to reduce costs and improve efficiency. The company will offer a voluntary separation package to Mantua and Aurora employees before cuts are made.