Daido Metal Co. Ltd. (Japan) will begin closing its engine bearing manufacturing plant in Bellefontaine, Ohio, in July, essentially putting 300 people out of work.

Built in 1927, Bellefontaine currently manufactures thinwall engine bearings, related components, and bearing strip for U.S.-based automakers, automotive aftermarket, and other bearing plants.

Approximately 150 workers are reportedly actively employed in the facility, which is operating at significantly reduced capacity due to the auto industry slowdown.

Another 175 workers are considered still on strike, a walkout begun back in July 2007 by UAW Local 1224 over failed contract negotiations. Both sides recently moved much closer to a now-meaningless agreement brokered by the National Labor Relations Board.

2007 article: Workers on strike at strike Daido Bellefontaine
The ongoing strike and labor issues at Bellefontaine escalated all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court.

2009 Ohio Supreme Court, Third District Court of Appeals
decision on appeal, re: Daido Bellefontaine and the UAW strike

Ohio Jobs and Family Services, Office of Unemployment Compensation:
Daido vs. UAW : decision of "labor dispute" or "lockout"
in rewarding unemployment compensation: dated 8/7/2007
A WARN Act notice has been filed by Daido with the State of Ohio, running only slightly ahead of the 90-day notification requirement.

Daido Bellefontaine WARN Act Notice
Daido's plan as presented calls for the factory to begin shutting down by July -- what eBearing has been told is an aggressively rapid schedule for such a complex facility.

A letter from Daido management to the UAW explained Bellefontaine, "has been operating at a loss for the past three years," with accumulated losses expected to top $60 million this year.

Not only has demand from key bearing customers declined, the factory also lost raw strip sales when MAHLE announced the closing of its nearby Caldwell, Ohio engine bearing plant. Bellefontaine has been a key supplier to MAHLE Caldwell, but Caldwell's shutdown has been moved up to July from its original late-2009 schedule.

Covering over 210,000 square feet and located approximately 45 miles northwest of Columbus, Ohio, Bellefontaine has always produced thinwall bearings, components, and strip. OEM engine bearings and aftermarket bearings have been marketed under the Daido and Clevite brand. Strip produced there had been used by other, formerly related, bearing plants in McConnelsville and Caldwell, Ohio; Atlantic, Iowa; and other facilities. OEM bearing customers included Honda's engine plant in Anna, Ohio, Nissan's engine plant in Smyrna, Tennessee and Toyota in Georgetown, Kentucky. Bellefontaine's profitability, however, is reportedly tightly tied to its aftermarket sales volume.

The factory's ownership history is exceptionally convoluted.

Built by Detroit Aluminum and Brass Co. in 1927, it eventually became an important component of Gould Corp's Clevite Engine Parts Division. In 1985, J.P. Industries (after founder John Psarouthakis) acquired Clevite EPD. In late 1990, T&N plc (UK) acquired J.P. Industries under is Glacier Vandervell bearings division -- only to be warned by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission it would not be allowed to acquire any more bearing companies since that would create an a market-dominant, anticompetitive combination.

In 1996, T&N entered into a joint venture with Daido Metal at the Bellefontaine plant, effective January 1, 1997 -- forming Glacier Daido America. Because Daido also manufactures engine bearings, complaints to the FTC resulted in an extensive investigation into charges T&N was attempting to evade the FTC anticompetitive acquisition restriction by forming a joint venture at Bellefontaine rather than a straight acquisition.

Federal-Mogul Corporation (USA) acquired T&N plc in 1998 for $3 billion, including the entire Glacier / Clevite Vandervell Bearings operation. However, before it would allow the acquisition to be completed, the FTC forced Federal-Mogul to divest all of T&N's polymer and thinwall bearing operations; meaning the Glacier Vandervell and Clevite businesses, including Bellefontaine.

F-M was also forced to sell off the McConnelsville Strip Facility, which produced much of the cast copper-clad strip used in its bearings. F-M was only allowed to keep the heavywall bearing business, which it sold off in 2001 to Miba AG and Waukesha Bearings.

Dana acquired those Glacier polymer and thinwall bearing manufacturing operations from F-M for $430 million, maintaining the original T&N joint venture with Daido at Bellefontaine. In mid-2001, Dana divested the polymer bearing business to Goodrich, which later spun it off to EnPro Industries.

In 2001, Dana and Daido added a second plant to their Bellefontaine joint venture -- the thinwall bearing plant in Atlantic, Iowa. However, in September 2005, Dana and Daido abruptly ended the arrangements. In the breakup, Dana took full control of the Glacier Daido America engine bearing plant in Atlantic, while Daido took control of the thinwall bearing and component plant in Bellefontaine. Bellefontaine's arrangement as a strip supplier remained in place under Daido.

article: Dana and Daido disband U.S. engine bearing joint venture
In late 2006, after falling into Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Dana sold off its entire engine bearing and components business to MAHLE GmbH for approximately $157 million. Daido Bellefontaine remained a strip supplier to MAHLE, but MAHLE decided to shut down the Caldwell plant by 2010 and lay off its 225 workers; approximately 150 remain at this point, and MAHLE has further accelerated the shutdown to July.

article: Dana divests engine bearing operations to MAHLE
article: MAHLE shuttering Caldwell engine bearing plant
Perhaps by cosmic coincidence, perhaps not, the two former sister plants -- MAHLE Caldwell and Daido Bellefontaine -- are now on the same schedule to begin shutting down by July.