COLUMBUS, Miss. (AP) -- Paccar Inc. has hired 90 workers and officials with the Bellevue, Wash., truck engine manufacturer expect to meet the goal of starting production in December.
The plant is located just north of the Golden Triangle Regional Airport. It will manufacture 12.9-liter engines for Kenworth, Peterbilt and DAF.
Plant manager Lex Lemmers tells The Commercial Dispatch that workers are being trained for assembling the engines.
Lemmers says the plant has been installing and testing equipment in the past few months.
Paccar broke ground on the 400,000-square-foot facility in 2007 for $400 million and agreed to provide 500 jobs by 2013. When the recession hit in 2008, the factory's opening date was pushed back.
The plant will ship the engines to other factories to be installed into the truck chassis.
