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Whirlpool Shutters Pilar Washing-Machine Plant as Supplier Layoffs Mount

The company cites an uncompetitive cost structure under a more open import regime.

Overview

  • Whirlpool has ended washing-machine manufacturing in Pilar and will pivot to selling imported units, keeping a reduced commercial and service staff of about 100–120 people.
  • The shutdown included roughly 220 layoffs at Whirlpool and has reverberated across the Parque Industrial de Pilar.
  • Logistics provider Translog closed its Pilar operations and dismissed 17 of 20 employees after the Whirlpool account ended, reassigning only three workers to another branch.
  • Supplier Novax suspended a production line and faces about 38 potential job losses, according to company president Máximo Donzino.
  • Analysts link the retrenchment to a surge of imported appliances that cut relative prices but eroded local output, with washing-machine imports up about 924% year over year through October and refrigerators up about 387%.