General Electric Co. announced plans to close its Lufkin, Texas, metalcasting facility as the company addresses decreasing oil prices and declining demand for drilling and well equipment. The closing, announced Aug. 24, will cut 250 jobs. In addition to the Lufkin closing, GE will eliminate a dozen jobs at the Buck Creek facility in Lufkin.

Lufkin Industries and GE Oil and Industries saw orders drop 40% in the second quarter, due in part to oil prices dropping by more than 50% in the last year, according to GE Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey Bornstein.

GE acquired Lufkin Industries in 2013 for $3.3 billion. After announcing a $60 million investment in the metalcasting plant late last year, GE scrapped the so-called “Project Phoenix” and announced a first round of layoffs. In July, Lufkin city officials said they were hopeful to find a buyer for the GE facility, but company officials cited “increasingly challenging market conditions” for the closure.

-The 17^th China(Guangzhou )Int’l Casting product Exhibition