May 22, 2008; Page B2
Ford Motor Co. will halt more pickup-truck and sport-utility vehicle production over the next two months, a sign that falling U.S. consumer demand for the vehicles still hasn't bottomed out.
The auto maker's Wayne, Mich., truck-assembly plant, home to the Expedition and Navigator SUVs, will be shut from June 23 through July 28, a Ford spokeswoman said. The Louisville, Ky., truck plant, where Super Duty pickup trucks are assembled, will be cut to one shift during the first four weeks of June.
Slackening consumer demand for these big vehicles has been hitting auto makers this year as gasoline prices push sharply higher. General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC also are idling plants as all three auto makers try to keep unwanted products off dealer lots.
Ford decided to idle the Michigan truck plant for three weeks in addition to the two-week summer shutdown that had already been scheduled. About 1,200 hourly employees will be affected.
Production had been curtailed this month already at the Louisville plant. Ford moved its body and paint shops to two shifts from three and had switched the entire plant to four-day weeks with 10-hour work days, the company spokeswoman said. The body and paint shops also are rotating one-week layoffs. The plant employs 3,700 hourly workers.
Ford Chief Executive Alan Mulally said during the company's annual meeting on May 8 that Ford would continue taking cost-reduction actions in North America.
