Ford announces 2nd Indian plant in Gujarat

The MoU was signed between Gujarat’s principal secretary (Industries) Maheshwar Sahu and Ford India President Michael Boneham, in the presence of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

The company, which is present in India through a wholly- owned subsidiary Ford India, will set up two facilities, which include stamping, body paint and assembly operations for vehicle manufacturing, as well as machining and assembly operations for engine manufacturing.

“The investment by Ford would create 5,000 direct jobs and 25,000 indirect jobs in the state,” Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi told reporters, after the signing of MoU.

“The two facilities will be set up on 460 acres of land, and have initial vehicle manufacturing capacity of 2.4 lakh units and 2.70 lakh engines annually. They shall be up and running by 2014,” Ford India President Michael Boneham said. The Ford company envisages exporting 25 per cent of the production, paving way for Gujarat to emerge as an automobile export hub, a Gujarat government official said.

The construction of the two plants is scheduled to begin by this year-end. “These new state-of-the-art facilities will help us reach the goal of increasing worldwide sales by nearly 50 per cent by mid decade to about eight million vehicles per year,” Ford President and CEO (Asia Pacific and Africa) Joe Hinrichs said.

Ford will start its operations just near Tata’s Nano plant in Sanand. The US car giant is introducing 50 new vehicles and power-trains to its Asia Pacific and Africa region by mid- decade. The company expects 60-70 per cent of growth to come from this region over the next 10 years. “We are coming to participate in totality of the industry in India. We would be bringing Ford capabilities to markets like India, China and ASEAN to grow our
business,” Ford President and CEO (Asia Pacific and Africa) Joe Hinrichs said.