Ford Argentina yesterday announced investments in the country for some US$220 million after a meeting between President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and local and regional executives.
“We’ll use these funds to update the Ranger and Focus models, which we manufacture in the General Pacheco plant” in northern Greater Buenos Aires, said Steven Armstrong, president and CEO of Ford South America. “We’re growing our business in Argentina. Our 2011 decision to invest in global products (based in the country) has been successful.”
His remarks came after a meeting with the president at Government House, in which Enrique Alemañy, head of the local Ford operations, and Economy Minister Axel Kicillof also participated.
Investments planned for this year and 2016 aim at boosting production. The company believes 54,400 units of Ford Focus and 66,900 of the Ford Ranger pick-up may be produced each year.
On the other hand, the announcement will imply that local terminals will “need” US$120 million less a year to pay for imports, a relief for the national administration.
Industry Minister Débora Giorgi, for her part, said Ford “was able to re-orient its products for the domestic markets.”
“Sales were up 18 percent this quarter compared to the same period of 2014,” Giorgi said.
Last month, Japanese automobile giant Nissan announced new investments in Argentina and predicted a strong recovery for the struggling vehicle market in the country, with the potential to sell one million new cars a year in the medium-term.
Date: May 29, 2015
Source: http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/190329/ford-vows-to-invest-us$220m-in-country
