CNH was offered $28.0 million in
state aid for East Moline
plant
By
Neil Versel
CHICAGO,
Aug. 4 (SNS) — CNH Global N.V. (CNH), a leading producer and seller of
farm machinery in North America, made the decision to close a self-propelled
farm combine-making plant in East Moline, Ill., by 2004 despite an offcr of
$28.0 million in worker training funds and other aid from the State of
Illinois, sources disclosed today to Stark’s News Service Interactive.
CNH
instead chose to move all of its North American combine production to another
plant in Grand Island, Neb.,
where voters last May rejected a 0.5 per cent local sales tax increase. The
proposed tax hike would have raised an estimated $2.0 million annually for
economic development in Grand Island.
A CNH
spokesman told SNS Interactive that the company would have been
one of the beneficiaries of the tax revenue.
Following
the defeat of the tax referendum, government, business and education officials
in Nebraska banded together to
provide more than $4.1 million in incentives, according to local news accounts.
The
CNH spokesman told SNS Interactive today that the decision to close
the East Moline facility was a
complex one, based on “more than incentives.” The spokesman also said that the
presence of a labor union at East Moline
was not any more important than any other factor. The Grand
Island plant is non-union.
CNH
was formed by the November 1999 merger of U.S-based Case Corp. and Dutch rival
New Holland NV. The Grand Island
plant is a former New Holland facility, while the East
Moline factory was owned by Case prior to the merger.
As
reported. CNH disclosed last month that it will close five manufacturing
facilities in the United States
during the next four years as it strives to save $500.0 million annually by
2003.
In
addition to the East Moline
combine-making plant, CNH will close down a Case farm tractor assembly facility
near its world headquarters in Racine, Wis.,
in 2004. It will consolidate its combine production at Grand
Island, Neb.
The
company has not indicated where it will shift production of large,
two-wheel-drive, row crop-type farm tractors, which it currently builds at Racine.
To
make room for additional combine production at Grand
Island, CNH will move assembly of non-motorized hay
and forage equipment from Grand Island
to a former New Holland plant in Belleville, Pa.,
where the firm currently builds construction-type skid-steer loaders.
Production of skid steers will shift to a Case facility in Wichita,
Kan., at an undisclosed time.
CNH
further disclosed that it will sell a component-making facility in Valley
City, N.D., and a foundry in Racine
by the end of next year as the company expands its outsourcing of “non-core”
machinery components.
CNH
also will close its Concord plant
in Fargo, N.D.,
by the end of 2001 and move production of air seeders to another facility in Saskatoon,
Sask. However, the firm will retain a
machinery-making plant in Fargo,
where it produces Case-branded four-wheel-drive farm tractors and
construction-type wheel loaders.
NV