Ford to build new assembly plant in China
Saturday, 26 September 2009
SHANGHAI, Sept 25 (AP): Ford Motor Co. said Friday it plans to spend $490 million on building a third assembly plant in China, ramping up production to meet surging demand in this fast-growing market as the U.S. automaker expands in Asia.
The factory, to be built in the central Chinese city of Chongqing, will make the next-generation Focus compact car, which Ford plans to sell globally.
The announcement from Chongqing came the day after the Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker unveiled a made-in-India compact car-part of a plan to boost sales in Asia, a region the U.S. automaker has hardly dented but is counting on to drive growth.
"Today's announcement reinforces our commitment to the further expansion of our China operations to meet the continued rise in demand from Chinese consumers for world-class Ford products and services," Ford chief executive Alan Mulally said in a statement.
In India earlier this week, Mulally said he expects a third of global car sales to come from Asia in 20 years, a third from the Americas and a third from Europe and Russia.
China is proving a lifesaver for all the big automakers, helping offset miseries elsewhere.
Total sales in January-August surpassed those in the U.S. for all but two months, rising to 8.33 million units, up nearly 30 per cent from a year earlier, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
Sales should soar to 12.6 million units this year, up 35 per cent from 2008, boosted by subsidies that the industry is lobbying Beijing to extend, Xu Changming, a senior economist with the Cabinet's State Information Center, said at a seminar Friday in Beijing.
The government is due to decide by mid-December, Xu said, if it will continue the subsidies, which are aimed at promoting energy-efficient vehicles.
"If the policy is extended to next year, rapid growth of auto sales will be sustained," Xu said. "Otherwise, it will fluctuate, and it's hard to predict the degree."
The Chongqing plant, part of Ford's joint venture Changan Ford Mazda Automobile Co., is the third for Ford in China and its second in Chongqing, an industrial hub of 30 million people sprawled along the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.
Slated for full completion by 2012, Ford said the plant will be equipped to make other small cars on the company's global C-car platform in addition to the Focus.
Ford lags behind other automakers in Asia, capturing only 2 per cent of auto sales there, compared with nearly 15 per cent in North America and 10 per cent in Europe.
Ford currently produces 450,000 vehicles in China annually. The new Chongqing facility will initially be able to manufacture 150,000 cars per year, with the capacity to produce 600,000 by 2012 when the plant is at full capacity, the company said.
The factory, to be built in the central Chinese city of Chongqing, will make the next-generation Focus compact car, which Ford plans to sell globally.
The announcement from Chongqing came the day after the Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker unveiled a made-in-India compact car-part of a plan to boost sales in Asia, a region the U.S. automaker has hardly dented but is counting on to drive growth.
"Today's announcement reinforces our commitment to the further expansion of our China operations to meet the continued rise in demand from Chinese consumers for world-class Ford products and services," Ford chief executive Alan Mulally said in a statement.
In India earlier this week, Mulally said he expects a third of global car sales to come from Asia in 20 years, a third from the Americas and a third from Europe and Russia.
China is proving a lifesaver for all the big automakers, helping offset miseries elsewhere.
Total sales in January-August surpassed those in the U.S. for all but two months, rising to 8.33 million units, up nearly 30 per cent from a year earlier, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.
Sales should soar to 12.6 million units this year, up 35 per cent from 2008, boosted by subsidies that the industry is lobbying Beijing to extend, Xu Changming, a senior economist with the Cabinet's State Information Center, said at a seminar Friday in Beijing.
The government is due to decide by mid-December, Xu said, if it will continue the subsidies, which are aimed at promoting energy-efficient vehicles.
"If the policy is extended to next year, rapid growth of auto sales will be sustained," Xu said. "Otherwise, it will fluctuate, and it's hard to predict the degree."
The Chongqing plant, part of Ford's joint venture Changan Ford Mazda Automobile Co., is the third for Ford in China and its second in Chongqing, an industrial hub of 30 million people sprawled along the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.
Slated for full completion by 2012, Ford said the plant will be equipped to make other small cars on the company's global C-car platform in addition to the Focus.
Ford lags behind other automakers in Asia, capturing only 2 per cent of auto sales there, compared with nearly 15 per cent in North America and 10 per cent in Europe.
Ford currently produces 450,000 vehicles in China annually. The new Chongqing facility will initially be able to manufacture 150,000 cars per year, with the capacity to produce 600,000 by 2012 when the plant is at full capacity, the company said.