Ford SA expansion puts jobs in the pipeline
Around 1 200 new jobs will be created by the R2.5bn investment announced by the Ford Motor Company to expand its operations in SA.
|||Johannesburg - About 1 200 new jobs will be created by the R2.5 billion investment announced by the Ford Motor Company yesterday to expand its operations in South Africa to produce the new Ford Everest at its assembly plant in Silverton in Pretoria.
Jim Farley, the Ford executive vice-president and president of Europe, Middle East and Africa, said the jobs would be created at Ford’s assembly plant and within its South African supplier network.
Read: Ford invests R2.5bn to build SUV in SA
He said the investment was a show of commitment to the country and would form part of Ford’s broader growth strategy into the Middle East and Africa.
“When your plant gets a new vehicle, it’s a really big deal and it’s a solid vote of confidence in our team and in South Africa as a whole,” he said. Farley added that the investment also reinforced South Africa’s position as a strategic export base for the Ford Motor Company.
The Silverton plant will join AutoAlliance Thailand in Rayong, Ford’s plant in Chennai in India and the JMC Xiaolan plant in Nanchang in China as production hubs for the Everest model.
Domestic production of the Everest will commence in the third quarter of this year with the model being launched into the local market by the end of this year and exports into sub-Saharan African countries next year.
Investment plans
Jeff Nemeth, the president and chief executive of the Ford Motor Company sub-Saharan Africa region, said the investment would be for all the production facilities for the Everest. This included: the body shop, the carriers and special tools that it took to build a sport utility vehicle in addition to the Ranger pick-up; for the new Ranger that was launched in October; investments in Ford’s supplier base; to reconfigure engines at the engine plant in Port Elizabeth; and for training.
Nemeth said the Silverton plant would be equipped to produce 10 000 Everest models a year and believed that the functional attributes and off-road capability of the Everest would make it particularly attractive to Ford’s sub-Saharan Africa customers.
Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies said Ford’s latest investment in South Africa was an important vote of confidence in the future of the country, as well as the automotive industry.
Davies said the local motor industry was of critical strategic importance because the country was facing very serious economic challenges, which were battering all countries that were simply producers and exporters of primary and mineral commodities.
He said the common objective of the African continent was to diversify, and manufacturing and industrialisation were a critical part of this goal.
“The way that we have been able to work together with the motor industry and the results achieved over the last few years are very important in that context,” he said.
Davies said Ford’s investment qualified for a 30 percent incentive in terms of the Automotive Incentive Scheme, which amounted to R699 million.
BUSINESS REPORT