CNH to invest 60 mln euros, cut 330 jobs in Italian plant overhaul
MILAN, Oct 1 (Reuters) - Industrial vehicle maker CNH Industrial plans to invest 60 million euros ($65 million) and cut about 330 jobs in an overhaul of Italian plants in its construction and engine businesses, a spokesman said on Tuesday.
Last month the Italian-U.S. group said it would split in two and list its truck, bus and engine division in an effort to boost asset values and streamline its businesses.
The loss-making San Mauro plant, near Turin, will stop producing Case excavators from spring next year and convert into a logistics hub, with a 20 million euro investment.
This will allow CNH Industrial - controlled by Exor , the holding group of Italy's Agnelli family - to keep about two thirds of San Mauro's 370 workers, the spokesman said.
In the engine business, CNH Industrial will invest a total of more than 40 million euros, he added.
Next year, the group will close the Pregnana plant on the outskirts of Milan, which employs a total of 220 workers, and transfer its production of marine engines and power generators to the group's Turin plant.
However, Gianluca Ficco of metal engineering union UILM said there would be a total of 260 redundancies in Pregnana, adding in a statement that the overall toll on jobs was "heavy".
The production of an engine for light commercial vehicles will be transferred from Turin to the Foggia plant, southern Italy, which will also start producing an engine for light tractors currently produced outside Italy, the spokesman said.
Such moves, combined with the new production of batteries for electric power units in Turin, will allow CNH to keep jobs unchanged both in Turin and in Foggia, he added.
Metal engineering unions FIM, UILM, FISMIC, UGLM and AQCFR said they would meet the group's executive and the ministry of economic development to seek solutions and avoid the closure of Pregnana plant and redundancies in San Mauro.
However, they added in a statement after meeting CNH Industrial representatives that the company said it did not plan further restructuring and closures in other group's divisions. ($1 = 0.9168 euros) (Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari; Editing by Alexander Smith)
