The recession is taking its toll on another business in Lancaster County.
The latest victim is NTN-BCA Corp. in Lititz, which announced Wednesday it will shut down some time next year, idling all 133 employees.
Formerly owned by Federal-Mogul, the 401 W. Lincoln Ave. facility makes ball and needle roller bearings used in clutch releases, engines and heavy industrial equipment.
Demand has tumbled to extremely low levels, leading to the decision to close the Lititz site and transfer its production to other company plants that can easily absorb the volume, company officials said.
"We are now operating at less than 40 percent capacity. You can't make any money doing that," said general manager John Cardos.
Still, despite business being "terrible" and "in the dumps," the company was reluctant to close the doors for good, he said.
"We spent a lot of time trying to figure out if there were other options," Cardos said.
Cardos said the firm has yet to determine when the Lititz site will begin to wind down its operations and when the last day of operation will be.
The plant's hourly workers are represented by United Steelworkers Local 1035.
Cardos said separation allowances and assistance will be provided to the Local 1035 members, as stipulated in their contract.
After operations cease, NTN-BCA is likely to try to sell the 278,000-square-foot facility, which rests on 25 acres, he said.
The Lititz plant was built to replace an outdated Federal-Mogul plant on Harrisburg Avenue, next to Franklin & Marshall College. The site is now part of the College Row development.
Opened in 1987, the Lititz plant had a workforce that peaked in the early 1990s at 430 people, Cardos said.
Federal-Mogul sold the local plant to NTN as part of its divestiture of its BCA division in 1996. Through that transaction, the local plant became a part of NTN Corp., based in Osaka, Japan.
The corporation is a global producer of anti-friction products, with 54 factories in 13 nations, including six locations in the United States.
E-mail: tmekeel@lnpnews.com