Developing story: Ford Australia set to announce plant closures today

Hbriz

Hbriz

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http://www.news.com.au/business/for...ong-engine-plant/story-e6frfm1i-1226648895882

"FORD Australia is set to drop a bombshell on the car industry this morning. It is expected to announce the closure of its Broadmeadows car factory and its Geelong engine plant."

"Confidential sources say that Ford Australia will become an import-only brand. It is unclear when the factories will close but Ford was due to introduce a facelifted Falcon and Territory next year."


According to Sydney Morning Herald, the closure is supposed to take place in October 2016.

"A Ford insider told Drive that the company will close all of its manufacturing facilities in Australia in October 2016.

The insider, however, has told Drive that Ford Australia will remain an engineering outpost for its global products."

"Ford Australia employs about 3100 people in Broadmeadows, Geelong and its five regional offices."

"An insider told Drive they understand an update due in 2014 for the Falcon large sedan may not proceed.

A Drive reader writes that insiders have been informed that Ford Australia will close its doors in 2016.

The locally-produced Ford Falcon has been in sales freefall for the last decade. In 2002, the Falcon sedan and wagon accounted for 54,629 sales locally, while last year that number had dropped to just 14,026.

Ford Australia also produces the Falcon Ute, which has also seen a drop in sales over the past ten years. In 2012 just 5733 units were sold, compared to 17,883 in 2002.

The Falcon-based Territory SUV has bucked the trend, however, cashing in on the growing consumer preference towards SUVs. It sold 13,583 units in 2004 when it was introduced, and in 2012 managed 14,646 sales."
 
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afr.com said something similar last august, sad if it happens
 
No surprise there. The .au market really isn't big enough to sustain local manufacture and any possible mitigating factors went away when the local suppliers got screwed and couldn't reliably supply parts to the factories.
 
The Aussie government kept cars out of the .au market in the past by very high duty payable. Is this another casualty of the GATT?

Are Aussies getting European or US Fords? RHD country so I would guess European.
 
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Story is confirmed: All Ford manufacturing operations in Australia will cease in October 2016.

The updated, last-ever Falcon and Territory will still be released in 2014.
 
Absolutely devastated. :cry:
 
This is awful.
 
Cobol74 said:
The Aussie government kept cars out of the .au market in the past by very high duty payable. Is this another casualty of the GATT? Are Aussies getting European or US Fords? RHD country so I would guess European.
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The protectionist import duties were scrapped many years ago. A small duty remains (apart from countries with which Australia has free trade agreements), but the strong Australian dollar means importing cars is significantly cheaper than building them here. In 2006, it was around 67 US cents, today it's over US$1.

Well Fords are supposed to be global now, but we've been getting European Fords for years. I'd expect the Mondeo to just pick up the slack, since it's already sold alongside the Falcon and probably takes a more than a few of the Falcon's sales. When production of the Falcon wagon ceased, Ford pretty much said that the Mondeo wagon was its successor, probably the same deal with the Falcon sedan.
 
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Cobol74 said:
The Aussie government kept cars out of the .au market in the past by very high duty payable. Is this another casualty of the GATT? Are Aussies getting European or US Fords? RHD country so I would guess European.
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Don't think GATT is really responsible for this one. From the earlier thread:

Spectre said:
In this case, {the unions are responsible} to at least some degree. They have been agitating at various .AU suppliers of Ford, demanding higher wages and there's just no room to give - so the .au suppliers are going bankrupt and closing up shop instead. So instead of some jobs for some wages, they're getting no jobs and no wages and Ford can't rely on their local suppliers. Some of these suppliers are so on the edge that they can't even make their rent any more. And the unions demand more money - blood from a turnip, anyone?

Case in point: http://www.news.com.au/national/car...closes-factories/story-fndo4cq1-1226434919109

If you can't rely on local suppliers in .au, why bother making cars there?
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Spectre said:
Anyway, the problem with this idea is simply this: Ford China. The closest suppliers to pick up the slack for the lack of Australian suppliers would be in China, so why bother going to the expense of shipping parts from China to Australia only to ship them back to China (or the rest of mainland Asia) when you can just make the vehicles in China in the first place? Even if you take into account the ridiculous taxes imposed on imported vehicles, it might be cheaper and certainly easier to just import from Asia to Australia than deal with the situation needed to produce cars in Koalaland.
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SPECTRE:
Yes Mrs Thatcher sorted out 'stupid' unions - did us bugger all good, jobs went west (Oh OK East in the following case) - Transits from Southampton to Turkey recently for instance.

Taurus is not a European Product I think. Well we do not get it, so possibly, no RHD version is available.
 
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Cobol74 said:
Taurus is not a European Product I think. Well we do not get it, so possibly, no RHD version is available.
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It's not happening until 2016, Ford could potentially produce a RHD Taurus by then. As I said before, chances are it's just going to be the Mondeo that takes over, since it already has a decent name in this country. The Taurus, which was imported for a brief period in the '90s, was pretty much laughed out of the market for being hideous and relatively rubbish and the cloud over that name remains.

Having said that, so few people bought one that most people have probably forgotten about it now.
 
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Cobol74 said:
Yes Mrs Thatcher sorted out 'stupid' unions - did us bugger all good, jobs went west (Oh OK East in the following case) - Transits from Southampton to Turkey recently for instance.

Taurus is not a European Product I think. Well we do not get it, so possibly, no RHD version is available.
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Erm, no, your unions did just fine in killing off Jaguar's Brown's Lane plant in Coventry. All by themselves, can't blame Thatcher for this one.

2000: Jaguar unions demanded and got the best pay in all of Europe's motor industry, despite not producing the best made cars or being particularly productive. Also see the related articles at that link for more details.
2004: Browns Lane plant closed due to excessive cost.

Gee. There couldn't possibly be *any* connection between the two. No, let's blame Thatcher even though she wasn't there at the time and had nothing to do with it. She must be at fault, the unions would never do something stupid like demanding unsustainable levels of pay.

Same kind of thing was going on in Australia. Look at the link I posted upthread; they were demanding more money than the Ford suppliers could give them so the suppliers just called it quits. Again - if you can't depend on your local suppliers in an already marginal-at-best market, why bother manufacturing anything there?
 
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Hbriz said:
It's not happening until 2016, Ford could potentially produce a RHD Taurus by then. As I said before, chances are it's just going to be the Mondeo that takes over, since it already has a decent name in this country. The Taurus, which was imported for a brief period in the '90s, was pretty much laughed out of the market for being terrible and the cloud over that name remains.
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By 2016, the current Taurus and its platform will be out. The Taurus is riding on the same ancient platform that was in use under the Five Hundred when it was released in 2004. In fact, this platform, the Volvo P2, has been in use since 1998. I suspect that whatever replaces the current Taurus will be better suited to the global market, as has been the trend with Ford product introductions since Mulally's "One Ford" policy went into affect a number of years ago. Mullally himself hinted at the production of a mustang-related car that would replace both lines in 2016. So, in a nutshell, I think that what comes next will be good for both markets. Both cars are old, both cars don't really suit their intended buyers anymore and both cars will be one, better car in the near future

Although this solves the problem of what will be sold in the Australian market, it doesn't solve the issue of where it will be produced and what will become of the factories and employees. It's heartbreaking to see an industry fall apart and to see people out of jobs, especially when they've been there for so long. But still, when you look at the sales numbers it's clear that manufacturing in Australia simply isn't economically feasible, particularly market-specific models with no export potential like the current Falcon. It's a shame that the factories can't be held over for retooling and export when the new model comes out.
 
laxmax613 said:
Although this solves the problem of what will be sold in the Australian market, it doesn't solve the issue of where it will be produced and what will become of the factories and employees. It's heartbreaking to see an industry fall apart and to see people out of jobs, especially when they've been there for so long. But still, when you look at the sales numbers it's clear that manufacturing in Australia simply isn't economically feasible, particularly market-specific models with no export potential like the current Falcon. It's a shame that the factories can't be held over for retooling and export when the new model comes out.
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I am sure the factories could be retooled for new models, but since they can't rely on local suppliers it doesn't make economic or logical sense to continue operations there. It's not just the factories that are important but the companies that make the parts that the factories use, and those are the ones that got screwed in Australia.
 
Bob Graziano says that the Falcon name is gone after this. No only will the next car not be a Falcon in the traditional sense, it won't even be called one.
 
That's probably for the best - there's a history of giving terrible cars the names of past legends.

Mustang II, anyone?
 
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