Photo: Ford
In mid-March, American carmaker Ford announced together with all the other American companies in the industry the closure of most of its assembly plants in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Initially, the plan was to have them up and running again by March 30, but that deadline was pushed to an unannounced date last week. Now, Ford says its plants will remain closed for the foreseeable future.
The Hermosillo Assembly Plant was supposed to resume operations on April 6, followed by a number of other facilities on April 14, but those targets will no longer be met, said the Blue Oval. The new targeted reopening dates will be announced later, when enough progress in stopping the spread of the virus would have been made.
“The health and safety of our workforce, dealers, customers, partners and communities remains our highest priority,” said in a statement Kumar Galhotra, Ford president, North America.
“We are working very closely with union leaders – especially at the UAW – to develop additional health and safety procedures aimed at helping keep our workforce safe and healthy.”
The only Ford facility that is scheduled to open in April is the one in Rawsonville, where the carmaker plans to start making a new type of ventilator developed together with GE Healthcare.
The breakthrough was announced on Monday, March 30, and Ford said it targets a production run of 1,500 ventilators by the end of April, 12,000 by the end of May and 50,000 by July 4. If there’s need for them after that, the company committed to having a production capacity of 30,000 ventilators per month.
Soon, there will be three months since the first report of a coronavirus infection in the U.S. During this time, the country managed to climb on top of the list of most affected countries. At the time of this writing, there are over 160,000 people affected, much more than runner up Italy, and about 20 percent of the global tally.
“The health and safety of our workforce, dealers, customers, partners and communities remains our highest priority,” said in a statement Kumar Galhotra, Ford president, North America.
“We are working very closely with union leaders – especially at the UAW – to develop additional health and safety procedures aimed at helping keep our workforce safe and healthy.”
The only Ford facility that is scheduled to open in April is the one in Rawsonville, where the carmaker plans to start making a new type of ventilator developed together with GE Healthcare.
The breakthrough was announced on Monday, March 30, and Ford said it targets a production run of 1,500 ventilators by the end of April, 12,000 by the end of May and 50,000 by July 4. If there’s need for them after that, the company committed to having a production capacity of 30,000 ventilators per month.
Soon, there will be three months since the first report of a coronavirus infection in the U.S. During this time, the country managed to climb on top of the list of most affected countries. At the time of this writing, there are over 160,000 people affected, much more than runner up Italy, and about 20 percent of the global tally.
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