BUCYRUS, Ohio — Bearings and specialty steels maker Timken Co. has announced plans to close a distribution center in north-central Ohio, eliminating about 300 jobs.

Canton-based Timken said Tuesday that the facility in Bucyrus would shut down by the end of 2010 in a money-saving move.

Timken's Bucyrus manufacturing plant will remain in operation, but the company says the distribution center work will be transferred to a similar operation in Spartanburg, S.C.

Timken has been cutting jobs and costs as it struggles through the recession. Executives have said they expect the company to end this year with 7,000 fewer employees than it had at the start of 2008. That's about a 25 percent reduction.