Fort Wayne Foundry to Close One Plant

Indiana’s Fort Wayne Foundry will cease operations at its Columbia City plant this week, and plans to close it permanently on February 26, leaving 135 employees out of work. Workers at the Columbia City plant were notified by letter on February 11. It’s the second shutdown notice for the operation in the past year for Fort Wayne Foundry. In June 2009, it closed its Lima Road plant in Fort Wayne, where 157 workers were employed. The foundry declared bankruptcy last May and closed both its Columbia City and Fort Wayne plants, but it won a new contract from General Motors Corp. and restarted the Columbia City plant in July. Fort Wayne Foundry produces aluminum sand castings for automotive engine components. It has been a longtime GM supplier, but the automaker is shifting its sourcing for those components to other foundries, including Unisia Mexicana, a Mexican foundry.