{"id":7694,"date":"2019-02-19T23:18:42","date_gmt":"2019-02-19T23:18:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/ford-scales-back-in-south-america\/"},"modified":"2019-02-19T23:18:42","modified_gmt":"2019-02-19T23:18:42","slug":"ford-scales-back-in-south-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/ford-scales-back-in-south-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Ford scales back in South America"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div property=\"articleBody\">\n<figure class=\"media-landscape has-caption full-width lead\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><\/p>\n<p>                <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"js-image-replace\" alt=\"View of the US carmaker Ford plant in Sao Bernardo do Campo, 25 km south of Sao Paulo, Brazil on May 15, 2015.\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/F051\/production\/_105712516_ford.jpg\" width=\"976\" height=\"549\"\/><span class=\"off-screen\">Image copyright<\/span><br \/>\n                 <span class=\"story-image-copyright\">Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<p>            <\/span><figcaption class=\"media-caption\"><span class=\"off-screen\">Image caption<\/span><br \/>\n                <span class=\"media-caption__text\"><br \/>\n                    Ford has operated its Sao Bernardo do Campo plant since 1967<br \/>\n                <\/span><br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">Ford has said it will close a factory in Brazil after more than 50 years as it stops selling heavy commercial trucks in South America.<\/p>\n<p>The US carmaker said it saw &#8220;no viable path to profitability&#8221; for the Sao Bernardo do Campo plant, which employs about 2,800 people.<\/p>\n<p>The closure is the latest move in a bigger global restructuring.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-46821571\" class=\"story-body__link\">It follows warnings of thousands of job cuts<\/a> in the UK and mainland Europe. <\/p>\n<p>Lyle Watters, president of Ford of South America, said Ford remained &#8220;committed&#8221; to the South American region.<\/p>\n<p>He said the firm was focused on improving its product offerings and implementing &#8220;a leaner, more agile business model&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>About 2,800 job cuts are expected, according to labour organisations &#8211; a blow in a country where the unemployment rate is already above 10%.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We know this action will have a major impact on our employees in S\u00e3o Bernardo and we will be working closely with all our stakeholders on the next steps,&#8221; Mr Watters said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape has-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><\/p>\n<p>                 <span class=\"off-screen\">Image copyright<\/span><br \/>\n                 <span class=\"story-image-copyright\">Reuters<\/span><\/p>\n<p>            <\/span><figcaption class=\"media-caption\"><span class=\"off-screen\">Image caption<\/span><br \/>\n                <span class=\"media-caption__text\"><br \/>\n                    The facility currently produces Cargo trucks, F Series pick-ups and the Fiesta.<br \/>\n                <\/span><br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The decision to close the factory and exit the heavy truck business comes as Ford grapples with a sharp decline in profits driven by its international operations.<\/p>\n<p>In South America, revenue fell 9% last year and the firm lost market share in most countries.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the Sao Bernardo closure, Ford recently stopped making its Focus car in Argentina. <\/p>\n<p>The company said it had also slashed salaried and administrative costs in the region by more than 20% in the past few months.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"story-body__crosshead\">&#8216;Major impact&#8217;<\/h2>\n<p>The Sao Bernardo do Campo facility currently produces Ford Cargo trucks, certain F Series trucks and the Fiesta car.<\/p>\n<p>Sales of those models will end after its inventories are sold, Ford said.<\/p>\n<p>The closure is expected to cost Ford about $460m, with much of those costs due to separation and termination payments for employees, dealers and suppliers.<\/p>\n<p>The Sao Bernardo do Campo assembly plant is one of two Ford factories in Brazil and has been operational since 1967.  <\/p>\n<p>It is located near Sao Paulo, in an area with a rich history of car-making and unionised labour, which helped to launch the career of former Brazilian president Luis In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-47300317\">Source<\/a> by <a href=\"\">[author_name]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Ford has operated its Sao Bernardo do Campo plant since 1967 Ford has said it will close a factory in Brazil after more than 50 years as it stops selling heavy commercial trucks in South America. The US carmaker said it saw &#8220;no viable path to profitability&#8221; for the &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}