Tuesday, January 03, 2017
Ford Cancels New Plant In Mexico
Ford Motor Company announced Tuesday it will cancel a $1.6 billion plant planned for Mexico and will instead invest $700 million in a Michigan assembly plant, directly tying the decision to “pro-growth policies” championed by President-elect Donald Trump.
Entire article at
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/01/03/ford-to-scrap-mexico-plant-invest-in-michigan-due-to-trump-policies.html
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NBC
Ford Cancels Plans for Mexico Plant
By CNBC | Jan. 3, 2017 | 3:34
Mark Fields, the C.E.O. of Ford, said market demand – not criticism from Donald Trump – was the main reason for canceling plans to build a Mexican plant.
Washington Post
The real reason Ford abandoned its plant in Mexico has little to do with Trump
By Danielle Paquette January 4 at 10:08 AM
Ford chief executive Mark Fields said Tuesday the automaker was ditching its plans to open a factory in Mexico and instead expanding a Michigan plant, creating 700 more local jobs.
The next wave of workers in Flat Rock will build mostly self-driving and electric cars, including a hybrid Mustang. Unlike manufacturing roles of decades past, though, the jobs will probably require computer literacy and more than a high school degree.
“The era of the electric vehicle is dawning,” Fields told his employees this week, “and we at Ford plan to be a leader in this exciting future.”
The new employment opportunities — the tickets to the middle class — will not look like the old ones. Economists say auto manufacturing at Ford and beyond will become increasingly automated, resulting in fewer jobs for more highly skilled workers.
Ford’s move became political after Fields expressed confidence in the business climate under President-elect Donald Trump, and Trump on Twitter took credit for the company’s decision. Both men invoked the importance of protecting American jobs.
Analysts, though, say Ford’s decision stemmed more from its long-term goals than the new administration or devotion to U.S. workers. The company aims to invest $4.5 billion in electric vehicles by 2020. (The company would not comment on the specifics of the 700 new positions.)
"We expect a big change in the next decade on not only the growing affordability,” Fields said, “but also the consumer acceptance of electrified vehicles.”
The Ford engineers, tasked with creating these models, work in Dearborn, Mich. — 20 miles from the Flat Rock assembly plant. Moving production to Mexico would have made their jobs harder, said Brett Smith, an auto analyst at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor....
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