Ford Announces Production Cuts in Germany and Spain

Citing the sharp decline in new car sales and the continuing negative economic outlook, Ford of Europe today announced that it will reduce production at two of its main European plants in Valencia, Spain and Saarlouis, Germany. Although the automaker did not disclose details on how much production will be cut, it did say that the Valencia Plant in Spain will remove one of the three-shifts from May 1 while the Saarlouis Plant in Germany will continue with its current four-day production week.

During the first two months of 2009, Ford sold a total of 200,838 passenger cars in Europe, down 15.5 percent from the same period in 2008.

"Cutting capacity, reducing costs and safeguarding our future product plans are essential actions for Ford of Europe to sustain a viable business for the future," said John Fleming, Ford of Europe Chairman and CEO. "We have already taken a number of actions but, as the market has continued to weaken substantially, we are now taking additional necessary actions."

"In relation to today's announcement, we considered all the options but decided the best approach in the present circumstances was to re-balance production across our plants in line with the market decline. We are realigning not only our current production requirements but also our future sourcing plans to meet our business needs," he added.