The Williams County, Ohio, economy is taking another blow. Midwest Stamping LLC told the state that it’s cutting 198 employees, effective today.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the plant, which supplies the auto industry, is shutting down.

Officials with the company couldn’t be reached Friday morning. But in its notice to the state, Midwest said the company was unable in recent months to get new business or obtain loans to keep operating. It was unable to give Ohio officials more notice about the layoffs because that would have doomed those efforts, Midwest’s notice to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services said.

"When Midwest Stamping’s efforts to obtain additional capital and business failed, it had little choice but to agree to sell the company to Matcor," the notice said.

Matsu Group, a company headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, owns Matcor Automotive, which does metal stamping, among other sectors.

A woman who answered the phone there declined to say whether the company had purchased Midwest Stamping, but she said it was unlikely company officials would be available Friday because they were closing a facility. Asked whether the facility is in Edgerton, she said that is "very possible."

Companies sometimes buy and shut down competitors to gain market share.

Williams County had the worst unemployment of Ohio’s 88 counties from April through July. By September, it had improved to the county with the state’s fifth-worst unemployment, at 14.1 percent.

With a labor force of fewer than 21,000, the loss of almost 200 jobs will be felt more in Williams County than in a more populous area.

In September, Metaldyne Corp. said it was laying off 50 of the 171 employees in Edon, eight miles north of Edgerton. And after Fleetwood Enterprises Inc. declared bankruptcy in March, it shut down a travel-trailer plant in Edgerton, costing 175 workers their jobs.

mschladen@jg.net