Timken plans staged job reductions at Springfield belt factory

Springfield belt production will continue

Timken plans to remove 97 jobs from its belt-manufacturing operation in Springfield, Missouri, while continuing to produce belts at the site. The reduction represents roughly 40% of the workforce, a company spokesperson told Manufacturing Dive. The decision concerns long-term production capacity and customer demand. The 14 January 2025 news report describes a workforce reduction at an operating factory, rather than the closure of the Springfield facility in the United States.

The company’s notice to Missouri workforce officials identifies the establishment as Timken Belts. It describes permanent reductions beginning in March 2025. The covering letter anticipates completion by March 2026; its attachment lists individual separation windows from March through September 2025.

A schedule by production area and position

The attachment separates union production positions from salaried jobs. Six employees appear in the first listed production window, 31 March to 11 April 2025: two automatic-calender operators, two automatic-windup operators, one trucker and one splicer. Later windows apply to other named jobs.

Salaried reductions list one buyer and one sales analyst in May, one RE supervisor in July, and one WM supervisor, one SCM generalist and one SCM scheduler in September 2025. Production areas are listed separately:

PT Components, including calender, winding and material-handling roles.
Raw Edge, including building, cutting and visual-inspection roles.
Wrap Molded, including curing, wrapping, inspection and packing roles.

Changes within industrial motion

Belts sit within Timken’s Industrial Motion business. That segment recorded third-quarter 2024 net sales of $362.1 million, down 1.4% from a year earlier. Springfield’s planned reductions follow a separate decision involving the Fort Scott, Kansas, belt facility. That plant was expected to close by the end of the second quarter of 2025. Timken was also increasing belt production at its San José Iturbide operation in Mexico, which opened in December 2020 and began making belts in 2024.

Timken completed the acquisition of CGI, Inc. on 10 September 2024. CGI manufactures precision drive systems for automation markets, particularly medical robotics. The company announcement identifies approximately 130 employees at the acquired business and expected sales of around $45 million during 2024.

Timken company wordmark

The company’s reported operating footprint

The CGI transaction had previously been announced; the September release records its completion. The acquired company’s automation activities join Timken’s engineered-bearing and industrial-motion operations. Its $45 million sales figure was a company expectation issued during 2024, rather than a confirmed annual result.

At the September announcement date, Timken reported more than 19,000 employees and operations in 45 countries, with 2023 group sales of $4.8 billion. That operating footprint covers the wider company. Springfield’s later notice concerns one belt facility, identified jobs and a prospective series of reductions during its continuing production.