General Motors today confirmed a tentative deal to sell its GMT560 medium-duty truck business to Navistar International Corp. Terms were not disclosed.

GM wants to exit that business and focus on designing, manufacturing and selling cars and light trucks globally, GM spokeswoman Melisa Tezanos told Automotive News.

GMT560 trucks include the Chevrolet Kodiak and GMC TopKick, which can be used as dump trucks, tow trucks and beverage delivery trucks.

GM sells 30,000 to 40,000 GMT560 trucks annually, Tezanos said. Industrywide, medium-duty sales in 2007 are expected to be 180,000 units, she said.

Under the tentative deal, Navistar will assemble the trucks, including their chassis and frames. Existing outside suppliers contracted by GM will continue to provide powertrain and other components, Navistar spokesman Roy Wiley said.

The tentative agreement follows the UAW’s Dec. 16 ratification of a three-year labor contract with Navistar’s International Truck and Engine Corp. unit. The UAW had been on strike against International Truck since Oct. 23.

"Obviously GM operates union plants; we operate union plants," Wiley said. "I think this new (labor) contract makes the deal easier to do."

Assembly of conventional GMT560 trucks will go to the International Truck plant in Springfield, Ohio, a UAW source said. The trucks now are assembled at a GM plant in Flint, Mich.

Neither GM nor Navistar would comment on assembly locations.

About 270 of the nearly 1,100 UAW-represented employees at Springfield assembly had been laid off before the strike. When production at the plant resumes in January, production will be cut from the 104 trucks a day in September to about 65 a day. This means more workers will be laid off, but the number of layoffs is unclear, the UAW source said.

The Navistar-assembled trucks will continue to bear GM nameplates, Tezanos said.

Wiley said the companies hope the deal will close by mid-2008.