Ford Idles 10 Production Plants

New day, more suspended plants. This time, the company that takes the decision to temporary suspend the activity of several production facilities is Ford, one of the largest carmakers in the world and member of the close-to-bankruptcy group, Detroit 3. According to an Autonews report, Ford Motor Co. announced that 10 of its North American factories will be closed between January 5 and January 12, as part of Ford's cost-cutting plans to align its offering with the market demand. Ford plans to cut production of the 2009 first quarter by 37.9 percent to 430,000 vehicles, the aforementioned source added.

Ford's spokeswoman Angie Kozleski says all facilities will restart their regular operations on January 12, with a single exception: the Hermosillo plant will be closed for the whole month, as part of the same cost-cutting campaign.

On the other hand, the Dearborn, Michigan and the Kansas City facilities will remain 100 percent active for the full month, as they produce a number of models said to be vital for Ford's sales revamping: F-150 pickup, Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner.

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, Ford isn't the first company that seeks to align its production with the continuously decreasing market demand, with General Motors, Chrysler and several other European manufacturers announcing similar cost-cutting measures.

More importantly, Ford prepared no job-cut for the time being as the carmaker struggles to comply with the United States Senate requirements asking domestic companies to preserve jobs and reconsider future investments. And the F-150 pickup seems to be Ford's easiest way to start the production of environmentally-friendly and fuel-efficient engines as a hybrid version of the truck is set to enter production as early as 2009.