Ford to build Focus in Australia

[whippet_zetec]

Ford to build Focus in Australia
Toby Hagon, drive.com.au, 23/07/07

Ford Australia will build the Focus small car in Melbourne alongside the Falcon and Terrritory, starting in 2011.

Disappointing Falcon and Territory sales have prompted Ford Australia to announce it will begin assembling the Focus small car at its Melbourne production line.

Ford Australia president Tom Gorman confirmed Drive's exclusive report two weeks ago that the Focus would be produced in Australia in an effort to increase output at the company's Broadmeadows plant, in an announcement earlier today.

Ford says the decision to begin producing the Focus in Australia from 2011 will create another 300 jobs at its Broadmeadows and Geelong plants.

The Focus will be built alongside the Territory 4WD-style wagon and the Falcon sedan, wagon and ute - a move certain to increase complexity at Ford's Broadmeadows plant.

Ford says it will produce 40,000 Focuses annually, including diesel and petrol variants.

Ford says the move to build the Focus in Australia makes Ford the first Australian car maker "to respond to the increasing popularity of smaller vehicles".

The statement continued: "rising fuel costs and changing consumer lifestyles have create a dramatic shift in customer buying preferences with small cars accounting for 21.7 per cent of all new cars sold in Australia, up from 15.4 per cent in 1998".

Gorman says the addition of the Focus to the company's locally-produced models is a boost for the company.

"Manufacturing the Ford Focus in Australia will allow us to deliver key business requirements of improving our capacity utilisation and strengthening Ford Australia's integration into the global Ford Motor Company," says Gorman. "it also reflects the contemporary market demands for smaller vehicles and opens up significant export opportunities within the region."

Ford's Broadmeadows plant is capable of producing up to 120,000 vehicles a year, but the capacity is running at about 80,000 since the well-publicised drop in large-car sales; large car sales have been in decline for a decade.

In 2006 Falcon sales were at their lowest level in more than 40 years, finishing behind the Toyota Corolla small car for the first time.

Ford's arch rival, Holden, has taken a different strategy to Ford with its Elizabeth plant in South Australia.

Holden has set itself up as the global leader in the General Motors world for large, rear-wheel drive cars, and is exporting various versions of the Commodore to countries as far flung as China, Korea, the United States and the Middle East.

Ford is believed to be considering a similar position for its Australian outpost, although the company is years behind Holden. It is not known what impact this announcement will have on Ford Australia's global aspirations for its rear-wheel drive models.

The production of the Focus at Broadmeadows represents the first time a local car maker has assembled a small car in Australia since the demise of the once-loved Laser, which was imported here from 1994 before being replaced by the Focus in 2002.

Australia's four local car makers - Toyota, Holden, Mitsubishi and Ford - have stuck predominantly to large cars (and derivatives), creating a global niche of sorts.

In 1998, Holden built the Vectra mid-sized car alongside the Commodore at the company's South Australian plant, but the move was short-lived having brought with it complications on the production line. The last of the Australian-made Vectras rolled off the line towards the end of 2000.

News that Ford would begin producing the Focus in Australia was broken by Drive two weeks ago. Various media outlets questioned Drive's exclusive story about the Focus being produced locally, despite strong industry sources backing up the deal. One rival outlet went as far as to say our exclusive report was "off target".

Have your say and see our readers' opinions on Ford's decision at Drive Blogs.

Ford's big year

It's been a busy year for Ford in terms of announcements and leaks.

Early in 2007 the company announced it would discontinue two of its oldest nameplates, Fairlane and LTD, due to dismal sales.

More recently the company confirmed it would be ceasing local production of its decades old in-line six-cylinder engine and be replacing it with a new V6 to be imported from America.

The company then suffrered the potentially damaging effect of pictures leaked of its heavily-revised Falcon, 10-odd months before the car goes on sale early in 2008.

Then there's the announcement that the Focus small car would be built in Australia.



http://www.drive.com.au/Editorial/Ar...=41903&IsPgd=0

[Ringo]

Why didn't they announce this at the same time as the Engine plant closing...would have softened the media exposure a little....

Hmmm Aussie Focus.....Good stuff....shame its 3 years away.

Good on the oval.....its trying to sure up its survival and relevance locally and internationally.

[Ringo]

Imagine a Focus E-gas !

Cost you about $4.50 to drive 100 kms

Now that would be interesting !!

[eXtremist]

By the time Australia starts making the Focus in Australia, LPG will be just as expensive as ULP.

[TROYAS]

Does this mean that the new redesign of the Focus won't be coming out next year? :S I was told that it would be, so I've been waiting on getting a new car....
Hope I dont have to go to a different make

Can anyone confirm this? I'm talking about the new Focus that will be based on the same 'kinetic design' idea as the Mondeo.

Cheers,
Troy

[chevypower]

Originally Posted by Ringo

Why didn't they announce this at the same time as the Engine plant closing...would have softened the media exposure a little....

Hmmm Aussie Focus.....Good stuff....shame its 3 years away.

Good on the oval.....its trying to sure up its survival and relevance locally and internationally.

Timing is everything with these things, my thoughts are if they did announce it at the same time, it wouldn't have been as greater impact (for the good) it may have softened the other news, but that's all it would have done. From a business perspective, they did the right thing - even though all of this would have been decided quite some time ago.

Awesome news, is it official?

This will be the 3rd or 4th Focus building plant in SE-Asia.

I wonder if the Mazda 3 could be built at the same plant, from what my uncle tells me his mate in the Philippines works at a factory and the Focus and Mazda 3 are built on the same production line.

[More revs]

Maybe a road going Super 2000 influenced model might happen now. Something like that would kill off all those turbo 6 a V8 models over night. And I would get back into rallying then... yeahhh baby.

[MeestaNob!]

Holy its gonna be 2002 all over again.

2010-2011: Huntsman Falcon, ALL NEW Territory, ALL NEW Australian built Focus III.

PR department must be folding up into the fetal position under their desks as we speak.

[Martyvan]

Originally Posted by BlackLS

This will be the 3rd or 4th Focus building plant in SE-Asia.

Something in the main thread in "The Pub" made me think they are consolidating their S.E. Asian RHD manufacturing into the Australian plant... with the possibility of building LHD as well if required (Long way off)

One might potentially also suggest that the Mondeo wouldnt be too much of a stretch built at this factory, given they Mondeo & Focus share a number of components.... ?

[SuperMono]

A related snippet from the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA).

"Ford employees are enraged by imminent job cuts.

Ford Motor Company in South Africa has announced further massive retrenchments plans of hundreds of workers. This follows relocation of Volvo and Land Rover production operations in Pretoria’s Ford assembly plant to Europe. Discontinued production of the most popular Ford Ikon late last year, also put the union on alert of more difficulties to come. And, the company’s local unit posted major losses when the production of Ford Focus in Pretoria for the Australian and New Zealand market was suddenly stopped up due to the free trade agreement between Australia and Thailand.

About 363 workers already had their positions, however terminated. And, last week the company further proposed that the fixed contracts of 562 workers should not be renewed as most models will be phased out and relocates to China.

When the crunch comes, Mashilo said production volumes of the Ford Focus which were fairly high before the contract for Australian markets was lost, are expected to go on a serious decline. “More retrenchments will follow as the rest of other models beside Ford Ranger, Bantam and Mazda Drifter will be imported,” he explained.

It is not expected that budget cuts, reduced production levels and downward variations of benefits for the remaining employees will help stabilize the company’s worsening market crisis worldwide."

I do wonder about possible impact of the Thai free trade agreement, good for Australia in that Oz can export to Thailand (RHD), or bad in that Thai CKD kits can be assembled in Oz rather than manufacturing the bulk of components locally.
Probably a lot more to come about Ford manufacturing and optimising production in the Australasian/Asian region.

[whippet_zetec]

Interesting note there from South Africa. Thanks for posting.

I guess Ford WW are looking to get as many synergies as they can for production, as a car manufacturer thats the only thing they can to stay competitive.