Tornado Disrupts Operations at Mississippi Caterpillar Plant

Caterpillar says it expects assembly operations for a wide range of its machinery to be sporadically affected over the next few months due to tornado damage at a Mississippi plant.

The Oxford, Miss. facility, which manufactures hose couplings for most of the company's machinery, was severely damaged by a tornado that tore through the region last week.

While Caterpillar said it's working to resume business at the Oxford, Miss. facility, it's also leveraging internal and external resources to supply hose couplings to Caterpillar plants. The tornado damage at the Oxford facility has so far not stopped production at other Caterpillar facilities, but the company said it does expect the damage to result in sporadic problems.

Caterpillar said it's too early to estimate the impact of the tornado damage on its financial results.

Caterpillar noted that work is underway to repair part of the existing facility where the tornado damage was less significant. The company added that it's leasing manufacturing space in the Oxford area and plans to move some production operations to the leased space.