Production of on-highway Kenworth trucks is slowly resuming at Paccar Inc.’s Renton plant, nearly two years after the recession halted production of these trucks there.

The plant has continued to build heavy-duty off-road vehicles, usually used in mining, at very slow rates since announcing layoffs of 430 workers in late 2008.

The current resumption of building on-road vehicles is “a small number” and “gradual,” said Paccar spokesman and Treasurer Robin Eastin, who said production has been rising over several months.

He said the company is now building more on-road vehicles than the roughly two-per-day rate of off-road vehicles.

“We’ll be bringing employees back in fourth quarter, so we’re in a position to increase the build rate by the end of the year,” he said. “A lot of friendly faces will be returning to the plant.” He declined to specify employment numbers.

Any sign of a production increase is a boon for the city of Renton, said the city’s economic development director Suzanne Estey.

She said that “a couple hundred” jobs in information technology and parts distribution continued in Renton after long-haul truck manufacture stopped.

“We’re hopeful that by the end of next year they’ll be nearing previous employment levels, in the several hundred range,” she said “The jobs at Paccar Kenworth are higher-wage jobs, and the multiplier for restaurants, retailers and auto dealers is very significant for us.”

The increase in on-road truck production reflects pent-up demand as truck fleets age in the wake of very slow production during 2009 as demand dropped.

Full-year production of all heavy duty Class 8 trucks will reach 151,000 units for 2010, up 27 percent from trough of 2009, but still below normal replacement demand, according to recent research from Americas Commercial Transportation Research Co. LLC, in Columbus, Ind. That organization predicts increasing demand with 2012 demand exceeding 300,000 units.

http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/blog/2010/11/paccar-resumes-renton-truck-production.html