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Ford to move medium-duty pickup line from Mexico to Ohio

3K views 13 replies 9 participants last post by  Lowboy 
#1 ·
March 7, 2014 - 7:34 am ET
DETROIT (Bloomberg) -- Ford Motor Co., which plans to cease making the Econoline van later this year, plans to revive the Ohio factory where the vehicle is made by investing $168 million to move pickup production there from Mexico early in 2015.

Production of Ford’s commercial F-650 and F-750 medium-duty pickups will move from a plant in Escobedo, Mexico, to Avon Lake, Ohio, the company said in a statement today. Ford had operated a Mexican-based joint-venture with Navistar International Corp. known as the Blue Diamond Trucking Co. The automaker is cutting those ties to take full control of production, design and engineering of its top-selling F-series pickups, Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s president of the Americas, said in an interview.

Ford derives most of its profit from its F-series truck line, Morgan Stanley has said. The second-biggest U.S. automaker sold 763,402 such vehicles last year, including 8,682 medium- and heavy-duty pickups, up 18 percent from 2012. Later this year, the company will debut an aluminum-bodied F-150 pickup.

“This is a highly profitable vehicle,”said Kristin Dziczek, an analyst with the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich. “The bigger the vehicle, the higher the profit, so that makes it less difficult that the labor costs are slightly higher in Ohio than Mexico.”

Ford also won’t have to share profits with Navistar now that it’s pulled out of that joint-venture, Dziczek said.

“We’re doing this to bring the 650-750 production in-house so that we have complete design, manufacturing and engineering control over our F-series lineup,” Hinrichs said.
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#7 ·
In the end there will be less jobs at the plant.
It has been in the papers about how many positions will be terminated with the new product.
When/if volume increase they will have spare capacity to add people however.

Still wish GM would bring the 1/2 ton crewcab silverado back to the states.
 
#3 ·
#8 ·
I hope this new F-650 will not go unnoticed by GM. It seems pretty much a given that 4500/5500 cab and chassis version of the Silverado/Sierra will return, but I think GM could bring back a 6500 series medium duty and make a profit at it. GM's medium duty dealership network still exists.
 
#10 ·
Funny thing is there is a rumor going around that the only reason Ford moved the F-650 to Ohio is because they made committments to keep that plant open to the UAW and the State of Ohio. Story is Ford really wanted out of the medium truck business, but they had to build something at the Ohio plant and the F-650 and motorhome chassis were about the products they could build there (no nearby stamping plant). So, we will see how it goes until the next UAW contract. I hope for the Avon Lake employees that these trucks are successful enough to keep them working for awhile.
 
#14 ·
Funny thing is there is a rumor going around that the only reason Ford moved the F-650 to Ohio is because they made committments to keep that plant open to the UAW and the State of Ohio. Story is Ford really wanted out of the medium truck business, but they had to build something at the Ohio plant and the F-650 and motorhome chassis were about the products they could build there (no nearby stamping plant). So, we will see how it goes until the next UAW contract. I hope for the Avon Lake employees that these trucks are successful enough to keep them working for awhile.
Throw some more anti-union assumptions out there while you're at it.
http://corporate.ford.com/our-compa...itedstates-stampingplants-waltonhillsstamping
Look what their products were/are:
Current products: Econoline Body side panels, Deck lids, Doors, Fenders, Floor Pans
So they have been feeding that plant all along.
Mapquest puts the two towns 30-35 miles apart.

Since you're inquiring about assembly plants not near stamping plants.
What is the nearest stamping plant to GMs Arlington assembly?
Sure they just added some new presses but that is mainly for "white" metal and lots of the black metal still gets shipped in.
Janesville Assembly was much closer to the major stamping operations in Michigan and Ohio.
 
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