The last Ford trucks roll off the line in Brazil....for now

[kscarbel2]

Dieciocho Ruedas  /  November 8, 2019

What had been announced at the beginning of the year on a surprise basis, Ford in Brazil closed truck production at its San Pablo-Brazil plant on October 30. This is how 52 years of uninterrupted truck production ends in this factory, a former Willys Overland plant.

Ford had already made the decision, in the process of deep global restructuring, to try to make the company profitable again. For this reason, plant closures and model cuts have occurred on all continents. 

Ford's San Pablo factory was famous because off its lines also came vehicles such as the successful Ford Ka (original) and the new Fiesta.

Ford's goal in Brazil is to get out of the trucking business, to focus on highly profitable and lucrative vehicles for the brand. However, CAOA is working with the government of San Pablo to keep the plant open, producing Ford trucks under license. This news is not yet officially confirmed but, it is known that CAOA signed an agreement for an acquisition process. But in recent weeks there is a silence that only installs doubts.

On October 30, production of Cargo, F 4000 and F 350 trucks came to am end in Brazil, with only about 650 workers remaining, of the nearly 3,000 it had.

With this decision, Ford seeks to reconvert truck dealers to selling SUVs and Ranger pickups. Still there is also a strong rumor in Brazil that Ford will not continue local truck production as Ford trucks could be imported from Ford-Otosan in Turkey. This goes hand in hand with the Bolsonaro proposal, of greater openness to the world reducing import tariffs to those you saw extra Mercosur, lowering them to 12%.  With the closure of this plant closes a history of almost 100 years of presence of Ford trucks throughout South America...

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[TS7]

I know that I do not know anything about the truck market in Brazil, but I cannot see how they could not have kept the small Cargo and F 350 and 4000 going. I think the small Cargo model would have sold well in the US if Ford had tried.