Ford Trims Production at Five Plants in North America as U.S. Sales Slow
September 19 2017 - 5:15PM
Dow Jones News
By Christina Rogers
DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. said Tuesday it will temporarily idle
production lines at five North American plants, including three in
the U.S., the latest in a series of moves by U.S. auto makers to
cope with slowing vehicle sales and rising industry capacity.
Ford is scheduling one to three weeks of downtime at the
factories to whittle down unsold-car inventory on dealer lots.
Collectively, these five factories employ tens of thousands of
workers, who will be put on temporarily layoff during the down
weeks.
The move will affect plants that mostly build Ford passenger
cars, including the subcompact Fiesta and bread-and-butter Fusion
sedan, whose sales have been hit hard by the shift in consumer
demand to larger crossovers and SUVs.
Ford is also taking down a line at its Kansas City Assembly
plant, where it builds the Transit van, to fix a recall disclosed
in June.
Ford executives have signaled throughout the year it might take
such actions to counter slowing U.S. sales. While it has largely
resisted permanent layoffs, opting instead to schedule downtime
when needed, the company's inventory levels on dealer lots have
crept up in recent months.
General Motors Co., meanwhile, has cut thousands of jobs this
year at several passenger-car plants in the U.S. in response to
slumping consumer demand.
--Chester Dawson contributed to this article.
Write to Christina Rogers at christina.rogers@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 19, 2017 17:00 ET (21:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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