Ford has been closing its manufacturing facilities all around the world as the coronavirus outbreak spreads. Earlier this week, Ford announced a temporary production shutdown of all of North American production facilities. Ford South American production has now been suspended due to the spread of the coronavirus in South America. Ford has announced that it has temporally suspended production at the manufacturing sites in Brazil at Camaçari, Taubaté, and Troller’s plant in Horizonte.
Production is also being suspended at the Pacheco plant in Argentina. Plant shutdowns will be effective from March 23rd in Brazil and from March 25th in Argentina. Ford says that the action is specifically meant to keep employees safe and to help limit the spread of the virus and to adjust production volumes to lower consumer demand due to the “unprecedented situation.”
Ford says that since the outbreak began, it has taken all measures to minimize the impact of the virus, including asking employees to work remotely unless they performed a business-critical job that required them to be on site. The automaker has also been limiting visitors to the plants and has increased the frequency of cleaning at the facilities. Currently, Ford plans to restart production at the Brazilian plants on April 13th. Camacari will resume operations on that date, working two to three shifts.
The Pacheco plant will start production on April 6th. The Ford spokesperson said that “in these unprecedented times” is more important than ever to put people first and the automaker plans to continue working closely with the unions and other local partners to explore additional protocols and procedures to prevent the spread of the virus. The automaker plans to define new work practices for when Ford South American production restarts based on what has been learned during the outbreak.
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