A company with a facility in Vidor officially alerted the state of coming layoffs in January, bringing the total amount of jobs expected to leave the region by mid-year to 158.
Trinity Rail Maintenance Services, a branch of Dallas-based Trinity Industries, submitted a required notice to the Texas Workforce Commission at the end of January that it expected to layoff 59 people by the end of April.
The Vidor facility was one of seven hubs in Trinity’s network across the South used to offer clients services from car cleaning to repairs.
In an email to the Enterprise, a representative with Trinity Rail’s parent company said the move was necessary due to the direction both the company and its customers were heading.
“The reduction in workforce by TrinityRail Maintenance Services at the Vidor facility is due to a shift in company strategy combined with market conditions,” Jack Todd, vice president of public affairs for Trinity Industries, said in an email. “TRMS has been working with the workforce to assist in any transitions.”
Reduction have been a growing trend for companies like Trinity after decline in rail care demand.
Trinity Industries announced in February of 2020 that it would be making reduction in the headcount of its manufacturing segment by around 20%.
Trinity Industries had 11,875 employees at the end of 2019, according to the Dallas Business Journal, 10,470 of which worked in its rail products group.
Those reductions, as predicted, helped the company’s margins heading into 2021. In December of 2020, Trinity Industries announced an 11% increase to dividends for investors to 21 cents per share.
Trinity Rail, on the other hand, has been making moves at the beginning of the year.
At the beginning of the month, Trinity Rail announced it was investing in a new real-time tracking and analytic technology system for it cars called Trinsight that would compliment a joint venture it had already entered to in October aimed at creating a new expansive platform.
It also announced the acquisition of Bay Worx Rail and its South Texas car cleaning facility, which the company said it expected to use to outfit its other maintenance facilities with new automated technology developed by Bay Worx.
For the Southeast Texas, the layoffs will add to the number of jobs already expected to be lost later this year.
Mitsubishi Chemical announced in November that it would be closing the Lucite International facility located between Beaumont and Nederland, which employs around 164 full-time workers.
In the notice to the state filed on Jan. 25, Lucite International claimed 99 people would be laid off by the beginning of May.
Mitsubishi Chemical, which cited estimated surpluses for the chemicals Lucite produced, calculated that the loss from ending production and the costs of shutting it down would have a bottom-line impact of about $230 million for the fiscal year ending March 31.
Regional Operations Director Kevin Burgason told the Enterprise in November that Mitsubishi Chemical would consider some employee transfers. The closest affiliated plant is in Houston.
jacob.dick@beaumontenterprise.com
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