15 September 2009

Ford starts up at new Romanian plant

Ford has a new manufacturing plant in Craiova, Romania, and it started producing the Transit Connect light commercial vehicle. But that is not all the new plant will manufacture.

“Today marks another step in the evolution of the Craiova Plant, and demonstrates that we are keeping our promise to transform Craiova into a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility,” said John Fleming, chairman and chief executive of Ford Europe.

“Since the first day we became the new owner of the plant in March 2008, our entire team here has been working around the clock to deliver world-class standards of manufacturing quality and efficiency. Once the modernization of the plant is completed and we are running Craiova at full capacity, we will have met our commitment to invest €675 million ($987 million) in this new manufacturing facility.”

Fleming also confirmed the next vehicle they will make in Craiova would be a small car. Craiova plant is also on tap to build a small displacement, advanced EcoBoost petrol engine.

At full capacity, Craiova would be able to produce up to 300,000 vehicles and 300,000 engines annually and employ 7,000 people.

The first commercial shipment of newly-assembled Transit Connects is destined for Ford dealers in Romania. The company expects to export the majority of Craiova Transit Connect production primarily to Central and Eastern Europe.

For related information, go to www.isa.org/productivity.