Wabash National to idle production April 20-May 3

Lafayette, Ind.-based Wabash National Corporation will shut down U.S. production between April 20 and May 3 as a cost-containment measure during the coronavirus pandemic, Lafayette, Ind.-based Wabash National Corporation will shut down U.S. production between April 20 and May 3 as a cost-containment measure during the coronavirus pandemic, the company said this week.

Salaried and hourly workers will be furloughed during the two-week idling of operations, the company said. Sales, warranty, shipping, and retail and service locations will remain open, however, as will all operations in the United Kingdom and Mexico. The company did not say how many production workers will be affected by the U.S. shutdown.

Wabash manufactures a wide range of trailers, truck bodies, and related equipment, and is one of the nation’s largest producers of semi-trailers. 

The company’s Chief Financial Officer, Mike Pettit, said the firm is well-positioned to weather the crisis.

“Wabash National is well-positioned from a liquidity perspective as we have prepared for an eventual downturn in our industry over the last two years. We recently bolstered our cash balance by drawing on our revolving credit facility and we expect existing cash on hand to be more than adequate to cover cash needs over this extraordinary period of time,” Pettit said in a statement Thursday. “We have modeled numerous scenarios and we believe that even under the most extreme assumptions the company has sufficient liquidity to comfortably meet its cash obligations for at least the next 12 months.”

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