While Ford and the world motor industry are facing immense challenges, Feder said plans to build a diesel engine for export markets are being implemented.
“We are putting in new equipment and reconfiguring the plant to prepare for production of the Puma diesel from early next year,” Feder said.
“At the plant, we have teams already training and preparing for the engine, which is a more sophisticated unit when compared with the Rocam engine we have been producing.
“And, just to clarify that, we will still be producing the Rocam for export to South America and for use in our freshened Bantam pick-up.”
The Puma engine programme was announced in January last year when Feder said its production would form part of an investment of more than R1,5-billion to expand Ford operations in South Africa.
The investment would also cover production of Ford's next-generation compact pick-up truck at its plant in Pretoria. This project was scheduled to begin in 2011, with up to 75% of the vehicles being produced for export, primarily to Africa and Europe.
Its Port Elizabeth engine plant, meanwhile, was aiming for annual production of the Puma turbo-charged common-rail diesel engine and components of about 180 000 units, with the majority also being exported.
Feder did not underplay the challenges facing both the world market and South Africa, where Ford SA is forecasting that the market will drop more than 23% this year to 375 000 units from an already-low 490 000 last year. Also, exports would be significantly down.
But he was confident that Ford, the best-placed among the troubled “Big Three” US motor companies, would overcome the problems both locally and internationally, based on a company-wide four-point action plan.
One point was to concentrate on “core products” for world markets, like the recently launched new Fiesta and the freshened Ford Focus at the South African launch. An updated Bantam bakkie was also launched,
The company would also take a “disciplined” approach to meet the demands of the market and its investment in new products.
Thirdly, it would manufacture and source components to gain benefits of scale, as would be the case in the new investments in South Africa.
“We will build in volume to obtain purchasing and manufacturing efficiencies and also in this market use the export programmes and free trade agreements, both supported by the South African government, to maximum advantage.”
The fourth part would be to streamline operations worldwide using common processes, as part of the investment in fresh products based on global model platforms, as was happening with Focus and Fiesta.
Source: The Herald
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