DETROIT (AP) -- Two days after appointing a new chief financial officer and announcing it would consolidate its North American operations, Hayes Lemmerz International Inc. said Friday it was cutting 145 positions.

The cuts, effective immediately, represent approximately 11 percent of the Northville-based company's North American salaried work force. The company employs 14,000 people overall.

Early retirement options are being offered to approximately 45 salaried employees. The retirements would begin early next year, the company said.

``Like the entire automotive supply sector, we continue to be negatively impacted by reduced North American light vehicle production, and by even sharper declines in North American heavy-duty truck production,'' Curtis Clawson, Hayes Lemmerz chairman and CEO, said in a statement.

The company produces wheels, brakes, and other lightweight components for the automotive industry.

Hayes Lemmerz on Wednesday appointed Kenneth Hiltz as interim chief financial officer replacing William Shovers.

It also announced it was consolidating its North American wheels units by combining both cast and fabricated wheels operations.

On Sept. 5, Hayes Lemmerz said it would restate its financial results for the fiscal year that ended Jan. 31, 2001, widening its loss for the period by $14.7 million.

The company said the move was necessitated by accounting errors, half of which it blamed on one unnamed plant with ``recurring operating difficulties,'' it said.

In afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange, its shares were unchanged at 89 cents.

Northern Light

-- Anonymous, November 05, 2001