Last year's sluggish market for hand-held telecommunications devices caught Plastic Moldings Co. LLC in the midst of constructing a Tucson, Ariz., plant.
Tom Hennings, president of the Cincinnati-based firm, said PMC stopped construction as cell-phone sales volumes decreased. Construction took place from September 2000 to May 2001, when PMC began installing new high-speed Ferromatik injection presses that it purchased.
To date, PMC's Tucson investment totals several million dollars. The project was scheduled to cost $15 million over three years.
``We are sitting on hold right now and will wait to see what happens,'' he said by telephone. ``We are just going through and exploring the options,'' including possible sale of the facility with or without the equipment.
PMC tackled the project to boost its cell-phone business.
Privately held PMC employs about 300 and has annual sales of about $50 million, principally in the automotive industry. PMC has operations in Cincinnati and Shelbyville, Ind.