Ford shutting down its truck manufacturing operations in Brazil
 

Ford claims it's not profitable to keep the truck operation here anymore, so it's shutting down the São Bernardo do Campo plant where the Cargo range, the F-350/F-4000 and the Fiesta are made, until the end of this year. Even though the F-350 and F-4000 used to be strong sellers before the hiatus from late-2011 to 2014, and the Cargo received some improvements recently including an optional AMT for some versions, the competition in the local market against Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo has been tough, plus the Chinese trucks becoming widespread in regional export markets and also fitted with either copies of Isuzu engines or some license-made Cummins took away what could be perceived as an advantage for the Cargo. When it comes to the F-4000, even though it's the only of its class with 4WD available (that Mexican RAM 4000 and the Silverado 3500 are not sold here), there has been some rejection to its current Cummins ISF2.8 engine among traditional buyers who prefer a lower-revving one.

Are they stopping production or moving it?

All foreign investor said the same thing. It's difficult or even horrible make bussiness on Brazil, taxes and bureocracy make things a hell.

Stopping it. The lineup will become basically the Ka and EcoSport made in Camaçari, Bahia, and the imports which are the Ranger made in Argentina, the Edge and the Mustang, assuming the Fusion is soon to be phased out too... I don't hold too high expectations for whatever SUV will be made in Argentina as a Focus replacement...

Ford is planning to assemble the Transit in Uruguay from CKD kits for regional markets in the Mercosur. Seems quite pointless that it would outsource it to a third-party company which owns an assembly plant in Uruguay, while the São Bernardo do Campo plant could've served for this very same purpose.

Brazil is very difficult country to do business in. Issues with both labor and the government. Companies were willing to make the effort when sales were booming during the 1st half of the decade but the market still hasn't recovered from the 2015 recession.

Some more info on why the Ford plant closed:

From: https://www.automotivelogistics.medi.../38290.article

In mid-February, Ford announced that it would shut its giant plant in São Bernardo do Campo, in São Paulo state, which produces some 33,000 trucks and cars a year, employing 3,000 staff in a three-day-a-week operation. The plant had been operating at just 60% of maximum capacity and 19% of its truck capacity, as a result of Ford relying more heavily on its plant in Bahia state.

There was not enough volume to justify running two plants. A plant running only 3 days a week is hemorrhaging money.

It used to be worse due to previous governments. President Jair Bolsonaro is doing a good job despite frequent sabotages done in different levels of public administration.


Now that the Camaçari plant also makes 3-cyl engines, I guess the Taubaté engine plant might be endangered too. When it comes to operating under its capacity, I'm sure Ford's absence from the bus frames market since '99 might be part of the problem. Just to remind, front-engined buses which still rely basically on a slightly modified cabover truck frame remain widely used in Brazil, even though in cities such as Porto Alegre a minimum 210hp rating is mandatory. The phaseout of local medium-duty variants of the F-Series in 2005, that could be more competitive in some regional export markets and for special applications to which they still fare better, was another misfortune.

Ford announced yesterday (12-Jan-2021) that they are shutting down all manufacturing operations in Brazil. This will cost Ford $4.1 billion and 5,000 workers lose their jobs.

Ford will supply the Brazilian market from plants in Argentina and Uruguay.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-f...-idUSKBN29G2E9

They actually announced it locally on Monday.


Ford was looking for a handout from Brazilian government, which President Jair Bolsonaro refused to give. The operation in Camaçari only lasted because of tax breaks which expired in late-2020. And since Ford got out of the truck business in 2019, it lost some opportunities due to the increased demand for logistics due to a growth on the e-commerce in Brazil after the outbreak of the Chinese flu.


The plant in Argentina currently makes only the Ranger, which honestly is the closest to the Model T in the Ford range at the moment. Besides being the model with the broader global presence, the Ranger also relies on a similar layout to the Model T as it has a body-on-frame with longitudinal engine and rear-wheel drive through a solid axle. Ford essentially has the same mindset since the Model T days, and that's why it's likely to shrink even more. When it comes to Uruguay, Ford has no plant there, and will contract Nordex to do the assembly of the Transit. Nowadays the Chinese-made Territory is already available in Brazil, and the Mustang is sourced from the United States, where the Bronco range is also scheduled to come from. It did surprise me Ford will also phase out operations at Troller, where it could eventually build regional variants of the Bronco and benefit from the off-road expertise of Troller.

This is all Ford was making locally since it phased out the Cargo and local variants of the Super Duty
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Mustang, Ranger and Edge are still available as imports

And this is the recently-introduced Territory imported from China
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After phasing out the EcoSport and Ka (badged Figo in markets where it was already supplied from India before the Camaçari plant shutdown) in Brazil, and running out of stock for the Brazilian-made EcoSport at some regional export markets, Ford is now sourcing the EcoSport from India to Argentina where it's liable to a 35% import duty which the Brazilian versions were exempted due to the Mercosur. Price is now around 5% higher.

Seeing this replica of the F-650 built in 2010 around the frame of a local Class-5 version of the Cargo, since the local medium-duty versions of the F-Series had been phased out in 2005 because Ford was not willing to update it to Euro-3 emission rules, it becomes quite clear how Ford made a considerable amount of mistakes. A medium-duty F-Series was still better than a cab-forward for some vocational applications, and some regional export markets which used to be supplied with the Brazilian-made trucks are still more favorable to longnose trucks instead of the flatnose ones.
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