Deal Watch: Freightliner lands bittersweet military order

Since that chilly autumn day back in October when Daimler Trucks North America announced it would be shuttering its Portland plant come June 2010, little notice has been given to the company outside its inevitable fate: the 900 manufacturing jobs gone, including 190 cut Jan. 30; the work shifted to Daimler’s plants in Mexico and North and South Carolina; the more than 75 years of Freightliner production in Portland coming to a halt.

But for the moment, anyway, work rolls on at the Portland plant. Employees are building dump trucks and semis from two of the company’s remaining brands, Freightliner and Western Star, and this past December, DTNA won a sizable contract to build more than 600 heavy-duty tractor-trailers for the U.S. Army.

The contract, worth $129 million, is for 603 M916A3 Light Equipment Transporters. Similar to Daimler’s civilian tractor-trailers, the M916 is used primarily to tow semi-trailers transporting engineering and construction equipment. The trucks can also be outfitted with armor plating for use in combat zones, as many from past orders have been.

In 2007, the company received a $166 million order from the Army for M916s, which capped off a seven-year, $725 million contract. In addition, according to the Department of Defense, Daimler was awarded a $170 million contract last April not only for 600 of the M916s, but for 200 of its dump trucks. That work is to be completed by Halloween of 2009, while the latest order is expected to wrap up about a month earlier.

There’s been no definitive word yet on when the company will stop taking orders for the Portland plant or exactly where the production of the M916 will end up after June 2010, though it is likely to end up at Daimler’s plants in either Santiago, Mexico, or North or South Carolina.

JON BELL