VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – In dealing with the longest down cycle in its 90-year history, US mining equipment manufacturer Caterpillar is pursuing strategic alternatives for its room-and-pillar products and discontinuing the manufacture of track drills.

The Peoria, Illinois-based company said Thursday it would forthwith focus on products with the greatest growth potential.

The room-and-pillar underground mining products under strategic review, which serve a segment of underground soft-rock mining customers, include continuous miners, feeder breakers, coal haulage systems, high-wall miners, roof bolters, utility vehicles and diesel vehicles. Caterpillar advised that, while the manufacture of these products remained under review, it would stop taking new orders.

Production of track drills will also be discontinued and no new orders will be taken.

NYSE-listed Caterpillar said it may close the Houston, Pennsylvania-based factory where the room-and-pillar products are manufactured while the company looks for a buyer, which will result in up to 155 job cuts. It stated that these actions would more closely align employment levels with current end-market demand.

In Denison, Texas, where track drills are produced, it would shed about 40 positions.

Caterpillar also advised that it would repurpose the Winston-Salem facility, in North Carolina, transitioning it from a mining to a rail facility starting later this year. Operations will transfer to Progress Rail, a wholly owned Caterpillar subsidiary.

As a result, the company will relocate the manufacture of some components used in large mining trucks from its facility in Winston-Salem, to its existing facility in Decatur, Illinois.

The company and its dealers remain committed to existing customers and will support those room-and-pillar and track drill fleets currently in operation.