The closure of Archer Creek Foundry in Campbell County is an extension of what has been happening in the Lynchburg region’s manufacturing sector for years.
In 1990, the region had about 28,000 manufacturing jobs. Nearly half of those were gone by the first quarter of 2009, employment data show.
However, the number of manufacturing establishments has dropped by less than 3 percent. Meanwhile, the average weekly wage that manufacturing industries pay in the Lynchburg area has nearly doubled to $918.
That indicates that as traditional manufacturing has decreased, higher-paying types of manufacturing, including high-tech manufacturing, have increased. The Milken Institute’s rankings of the Lynchburg region have shown an increase in high-tech business in recent years.
“You hate to lose any kind of industry, but this is in line with the characteristics of the kinds of industry that we’ve lost in the last few decades,” said Rex Hammond, president of the Lynchburg Regional Chamber of Commerce. “Industry’s still an extremely important base in our (economy) in the Lynchburg region. To date, our industry has been amazingly resilient, and in many cases, robust.”
Hammond noted that manufacturing still accounts for about 22 percent of the Lynchburg region’s jobs. He said that the region’s schools and colleges provide an education system that “underpins manufacturing in this community and makes it more impervious to the throws we’re seeing nationally.”
The Archer Creek closure is one of many similar foundry closures around the nation. There are 2,130 metal casting operations today, compared to 6,550 in 1955, said Alfred Spada, spokesman for the American Foundry Society.
Spada said foundries still produce as much product as they have for years.
In the past several decades “there was a perception that manufacturing was a lower level of work,” Spada said. He believes that needs to change.
He said 90 percent of all manufactured products contain cast metals from foundries. In order to produce nuclear plants, wind turbines and other future technologies, the country needs to keep its metal manufacturing companies operating, he said.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement