ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Wednesday, February 14, 1996           TAG: 9602140068
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: B-8  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER 

A.O. SMITH STILL IN GEAR TO BUILD PLANT DESPITE WEAKNESS IN TRUCK INDUSTRY, COMPANY UNDETERRED, EXECUTIVE SAYS

A.O. Smith Corp. hasn't lost its resolve to build a $24 million truck-part factory in Botetourt County, a company executive said Tuesday. That's despite current weakness in the truck industry.

Terrence J. Baudhuin, senior vice president for the automotive products division, said recent layoffs in no way suggest that the heavy-truck industry has a loose wheel.

Baudhuin, who was in Roanoke to speak at the annual meeting of Roanoke Valley Economic Development Partnership, said the steel will continue to rise at Milwaukee-based A.O. Smith's new factory.

When it opens by July 1997, the plant in Vista Corporate Park on U.S. 11 is intended to supply structural beams for trucks assembled at Volvo GM Heavy Truck Corp.'s Dublin operation.

That's despite recent declines in truck orders cited by Volvo GM when it laid off 190 of its roughly 1,700 employees Jan. 12. The Volvo GM plant's engine and axle supplier, MascoTech Body Systems & Assembly in Salem, laid off 34 of its 128 workers a week earlier.

"We're coming off two years that are setting records for [heavy truck] sales," Baudhuin said. "I don't see anything severe."

Volvo GM and MascoTech employees have been told that a surge in orders could mean they get their jobs back.

A.O. Smith last year announced the largest investment ever by a private company in a new plant or expansion in the Roanoke Valley. It was one of 11 projects the regional partnership said it had played a direct role in launching. That is the greatest number of projects the partnership has been deeply involved in during any year in its 12-year history, Executive Director Beth Doughty said.

The 11 projects have the potential to create 1,028 jobs directly and represent a maximum investment of $48 million. The projects the partnership announced in 1994 held the promise of 842 jobs and $14 million of investment.

The Roanoke-based partnership, an industrial marketing organization that is 61 percent tax-supported, handled 1,022 inquiries from prospective new employers and others in 1995, up from 771 in 1994, 717 in 1993 and 642 in 1992, Doughty said.

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