Ford is planning to create around 1,000 jobs at its Almussafes plant in Valencia (Spain), reports Cinco Dias. According to the report, the decision has been part of the preliminary agreement signed with trade unions. The move will be part of a return to a three-shift pattern at the site which is now expected to be relaunched in September this year.
Significance: Ford has significantly overhauled this site since shifting Fiesta production to Germany. The site, which is already home to the C-Max multi-purpose vehicle (MPV), is also the production location of the latest generation Kuga sport utility vehicle (SUV) which will be shortly joined by the latest generation Transit Connect. The combined impact of these would give good cause for the increase. The productivity of the site should gain a further uplift during 2014 when the Mondeo, Galaxy and S-Max models are shifted from the Genk (Belgium) plant which it intends to close. IHS Automotive anticipates that there will be a significant uplift in output, albeit behind whereexpected, from the 133,000 units built in 2012 to nearly 200,000 units. However, we expect momentum to build with over 255,000 units to be built in 2014 before jumping to 460,000 units during 2015 making it Ford's largest site in Europe.
