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Vought Aircraft, which builds the rear fuselage of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner in a new assembly plant in Charleston, S.C., is slowing the facility almost to a standstill, and its production lines leave likely remain largely idle into next year.

About 170 Vought workers and about 20 contract workers in Charleston will have being temporarily laid off Thursday. Only 30 to 40 production workers will remain at the plant, onward with more 150 manufacturing engineers, planners and other white-collar staff.

That’s down from a total of relating to 325 Vought employees and 300 contractors this bygone time summer. Most employees were new and had completed just a year or so working on the airplane.

Joy Romero, Vought’s vice president for the 787 program and head of the Charleston facility, said the temporary shutdown was forced by means of the just-ended Machinists strike, which stopped Dreamliner final congregation in Everett for two months.

“Boeing cannot alone ‘have a circular motion the switch on’ and be back up to speed immediately. It will take them time to ramp back up to schedule,” related Romero in a memo to employees Monday. “Obviously, Boeing cannot absorb our 787 fuselage sections remote from the capacity of their own assembly line — which has not been moving.”

On October 24, Vought stopped fabricating any more of the carbon-fiber composite shells of the elevate fuselage sections, what one. had backed up inside the factory as far as airplane number 19. It also cut overtime and let go hundreds of temporary contractors who had been working at the site to help captivate up on previous program delays.

Romero’sitting memo announced that this week Vought will likewise stand still greatest part assembly and systems installation work.

“Up to now, we have continued to toil on our fuselage sections, getting them ready for handing over to Boeing,” wrote Romero. “Now we must extend our temporary shutdown to include most of our assembly operations, except for installing engineering changes on airplanes 5 and 6. This behest take place within the week.”

Planes 5 and 6 are the next two up for delivery to Everett when the latest concourse operation there gets unclogged.

How long the Charleston factory will be idled is still undetermined.

“The length of this temporary shutdown will be determined subsequently we receive a revised 787 schedule from Boeing, that we expect within the next 30 days,” said Romero’sitting memo. “However, we would anticipate that the shutdown would exist at least the same length to the degree that the mint, likely longer.”

In Vought’s third part quarter earnings teleconference Monday, cardinal executive Elmer Doty in addition addressed the 787 plant shutdown.

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