Caterpillar Inc. Announces Layoffs At Plant In South Texas

Caterpillar Inc. CAT notified 120 workers at its Victoria, Texas, facility that they will no longer have a job effective, November 1.

Company officials said "market conditions" are the reason for the layoffs.

"Caterpillar notified a portion of its Victoria, Texas, workforce that it is taking actions to bring production in line with demand," according to a statement from Lisa Miller, spokeswoman for Illinois-based Caterpillar.

The layoffs were first reported in the Victoria Advocate on October 30.

Caterpillar's facility in Victoria employs around 600 people. The company manufactures large hydraulic excavators at the plant. The employees laid off served as support for Caterpillar's manufacturing operations, according to Miller.

Caterpillar recently announced its third-quarter financial results, badly missing most analysts' forecasts, according to Zacks. Caterpillar's revenue and sales declined about 6% during the third-quarter.

The heavy machinery manufacturer earned $2.66 per share in the third quarter, compared to  analyst estimates of $2.88 per share. Revenue came in at $12.76 billion, while Wall Street expected revenue of $13.57 billion.

The Deerfield, Illinois-based company said it now expects fourth-quarter demand to be flat, down by a $900 million reduction in inventories. 

"Our volumes declined as dealers reduced their inventories, and end-user demand, while positive, was lower than our expectations," Caterpillar Chairman and CEO Jim Umpleby said during an earnings call on October 23. 

Caterpillar's largest decline was in Asia, where sales in China fell nearly 30%, compared to the same period last year.

Caterpillar also recently announced it was outsourcing jobs at its Peoria, Illinois facility to a company in Dublin, Ireland. The positions were in its finance and accounting departments, according to WMBD-TV.

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