American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings, Inc.

American Axle and Manufacturing recently took a major step toward the shutdown of its Buffalo Gear & Axle plant, which is scheduled to close soon. It blamed the closing on a drop in orders from customer General Motors, and on other factors outside workers' control. The Detroit-based axle maker rode a boom in popularity of light trucks, but the Buffalo plant's business took a negative turn in 2006 when GM canceled plans for a replacement rear axle for SUVs. Rising gas prices and changing technology also contributed to the decline in production volume locally, making the plant costly to operate as layoffs mounted and idle capacity grew.