TCM America, Inc. has announced that it is consolidating U.S. manufacturing, parts and distribution activities in South Carolina and discontinuing related operations in its New Jersey and Texas sites.

The division's parts shipping operation in Houston was idled last month, and it is expected that TCM will implement a Houston layoff involving about 20 staff by the end of March. The New Jersey site which employs about 15 people, expects to cease operations on March 31 and begin relocation of the principal office and other activities to Columbia, South Carolina in April.

Last year, TCM was ranked No. 10 on Modern's list of Top 20 industrial lift truck suppliers, with $733 million total revenue in 2008. In 2008, TCM ranked No. 7 on Modern's list, with $1.3 billion in total revenue in 2007.
In a letter to TCM America dealer principals in the U.S. dated February 19, company president Kaihei Nishioka said the165,000-square-foot factory forklift factory in Columbia, S.C. will temporarily suspend production starting in April. He added, "Let me stress that as the economy and our business become stronger, production in South Carolina will be restarted."

Nishioka's letter to TCM dealers also said, "Please do your best to increase sales, and let us try harder together to expand our business."
Nishioka attributed the need for changes to "current business conditions and a slow economy" and expressed confidence in TCM's ability to supply dealers with equipment without delays.

The TCM facility in Columbia, S.C. has an inventory of about 600 forklifts. In the event that an order for a forklift with a particular specification is not in its inventory, the machine will be produced in the company's Shig manufacturing plant in Chokoji-cho, Japan without any impact on delivery time, Nishioka said in his letter.
The TCM moves comes just weeks after Komatsu Forklift announced its decision to discontinue the sale of the Tusk brand of lift trucks as of July 31, 2010. Last year, Komatsu was ranked No. 8 on Modern's list of top lift truck suppliers, reporting $1.15 billion in worldwide sales in 2008.

But, all companies, even the top ones, are being affected by this bad economy. The downslide was steeper than expected in the lift truck market. In Modern's Materials Handling Industry Outlook feature last March, then-president of the Industrial Truck Association (ITA), Stan Simpson, said he hoped that 2009 would be a year of adjustment rather than recession. Unfortunately, Jeff Rufener, current ITA president and vice president of marketing for Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift America tells Modern that wasn't the case and he was surprised by the pace and depth of the downturn. "We've had recessions in the past, but I didn't think it would be possible to fluctuate more than 35%. Last year surpassed that figure and we ended up being down about 40% from where we were in 2008," Rufener said.

On a positive note, Simpson reported that new factory orders are up 21% for the first month of 2010 compared to the same time last year.