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Ford to shutdown three U.S. plants for up to 9 weeks

 
3 2,804 views June 17, 2008

Ford to shutdown three U.S. plants for up to 9 weeks

Ford to shutdown three U.S. plants for up to 9 weeks

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A two-week summer idle at several of its factories over the summer is a time-tested method to keep production in line with demand at Ford, but the announcement today reveals some plants will be going on extended holiday - in one case, for as long as nine weeks. Weak demand for pickups and large SUVs has led Ford to realign its production goals to include more small cars, and this shutdown is part of that adjustment.

The three plants subject to the summer closure include the Michigan truck plant, Kentucky Super Duty truck plant and the Louisville assembly plant, reports Automotive News. The two latter factories will be closed for four weeks each, while the Michigan truck plant, which produces the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator large SUVs, will be closed for nine weeks.

It's an unsurprising move considering the dismal sales results posted at the Blue Oval in May, with total sales down 16% and Expedition and Navigator sales down 31% and 22%, respectively. Ford announced just a few days ago that it would be making more job cuts due to output cutbacks of 280,000 to 350,000 vehicles this year.



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Comments (3)

  1. By Gus Posted: 6/17/2008 11:35pm PDT

    I'm surprised the numbers for the Expedition aren't much worse.
    Feel sorry for the workers. 9 weeks with no paycheck...
     
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  2. By burke Posted: 6/18/2008 6:14am PDT

    I said once that extinction was around the corner...Well extinction is right here now
     
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  3. By chris Posted: 6/18/2008 7:54am PDT

    extinction is a strong word... you have to realize for has i think 5 plants for making F150s (expedition and defunct excursion), and one or two plants for making rangers. the market is shifting but all that means is that 2 or 3 of those plants should get retooled for smaller vehicles, thus forcing the remaining plants to kick into higher production again.

    I just don't know if ford will do that. a 9 week shut down is very costly, but less costly than making a product that wont sell. ford's been gaining market share in all of their light vehicles and they really need to consider retooling. the days where 3 shifts at 5 truck plants were needed are over. ford's got 2 "big engine" plants; windsor, clevland, and I can assure you that production in windsor is grinding to a halt.. they've removed the tooling from many of the plants in windsor. they're prepping for midsized engine building here, and the 4.4L diesel.

    ford just needs to retool their factories for today's market. and that isnt a very easy thing to do when you're running those lines concurrent to wanting to retool. retooling isn't an easy process in these older plants.
     
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