caterpillar closing its tunnelling plant by mid-april 2014, throwing 330 people out of work

A world has suffered a deadly blow.
Beat the Toronto tunnel
Boring machines dig holes under cities around the world. Caterpillar Inc.
Announce its tunnel
Boring machine facilities near Toronto airport will be closed and 330 people will lose their jobs. Toronto airport was just bought five years ago.
Before the acquisition, it was called Lovat Inc.
Lovat machines have tunnels in Hong Kong, Beijing and Singapore.
They added a few miles to the London subway.
They dug service tunnels for the London and Vancouver Olympics.
They drilled the Sheppard subway line.
Today, they are chewing on the new light rail line under Eglington Avenue underground and digging into the Vaughan tunnel to push the Spadina Metro North.
But now these machines are close to the end of the line and there is no light at the end of the tunnel.
Caterpillar tunnel plant will be out of operation in the medium term
Caterpillar announced 2014;
Parts and technical support will be available by 2016.
The work was not transferred to other places.
According to a company statement, Caterpillar withdrew from the business simply because it \"no longer represents a strategic growth opportunity \".
Caterpillar spokesman Rachel Porter said it was not an option to sell the plant as an ongoing business, saying it was \"significantly less financially performing \".
\"We evaluated the sales business, but given the poor financial performance of the business and the situation of potential buyers, we don\'t think this is a viable option,\" she said . \".
She won\'t say whether Caterpillar is bidding for potential buyers or whether the business is losing money.
Both TTC and Metrolinx said their tunnel would be completed by 2016 when Caterpillar\'s support was over.
TTC uses four on 8 machines. 6-
The subway extension of the kilometer Spadina known as Yorkie, Torkie, Holey and Moley.
Metrolinx also uses four machines on Eglinton.
One has been delivered and tunnel construction will begin this month at the west end of the line and the second one will follow up soon.
Two more projects working in the east end will be delivered later this year.
\"Caterpillar\'s timeline for delivering TBMs to Metrolinx has no impact because they have decided to stop the business step by step,\" Metrolinx spokesperson Jamie Robinson said in an email . \".
\"However, Metrolinx will work with Caterpillar to ensure replacement parts and technical support are maintained during the tunnel construction of the Eglington Crosstown project.
Caterpillar was severely criticized last year when it shut down its electronics.
Power diesel locomotive factory in Ont, London.
In this case, the company says labor costs are too high in Canada.
It transferred the work to a factory in Ind Muncie.
In this case, Caterpillar just pulled out of the tunnel business.
Labor costs are not a major factor, Potts said.
The news of the closure shocked Richard Lovat, who founded the company in 1972 after moving from Italy to Canada.
He and his son Rick ran the company until they sold it to Caterpillar for $49 million in 2008.
That seemed to be good news at the time.
\"I\'m on the moon!
After the deal, Rick Lovat told the industry publication Tunnel Talk.
\"It ensures our future without compromising our legacy.
The company needs to expand, and Caterpillar is the ideal person to help grow its business, Lovat said: \"Instead of being an invisible venture capitalist or bank, we are mainly interested in divestiture of assets or maximizing profits without investment, and we have a similarminded partner.
Still, Caterpillar decided to leave this week.
Old Lovat was suppressed on Friday but did not criticize Caterpillar.
He said he had no role in the company since the sale and was very surprised to hear the closure.
\"You build it from scratch and sell it,\" he said . \".
\"Then someone else is running the business and you can\'t control it.
\"What can you do ? \"
They try their best.
\"This is a respected company in the world.
We ship equipment to any region around the world.
We are very successful.
But everything has time and place. \"What can I say?
I was disappointed to see that they did not want to continue.
\"He said he regretted the unemployment of employees who had worked in the company for 30 years or more.
Potts said the company explained its decision to employees on Thursday.
\"We explained to them that we are constantly evaluating our business to ensure that they are indeed in line with our company\'s strategy,\" she said . \".
\"This is no longer the case here.
\"The factory seems to be idle on Friday.
Parking around the corner of disco Road.
And Dr. carlinvi.
Just after lunch time, sit empty.
It was usually packed at that time.
An employee who drove to the front desk thought it was a sign of a mistake.
The worker, who declined to be named, said he had heard of a mandatory corporate meeting on Thursday, but did not know the details.
When the reporter learned the news, the worker just shrugged his shoulders. “Oh well.
I could do nothing about it.
I won\'t let these things (bother me)
He added that he would go home and start looking for another job.