Ford Announces 2nd Plant In India And Now Neighbours With Nano

U.S. carmaker Ford Wednesday inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Gujarat Government to set up an integrated manufacturing facility in Gujarat, with both car and engine factories, Sananda near Ahmedabad at Rs 4,000 crore investment.

The MoU was signed between Gujarat Principal Secretary (Industries), Maheshwar Sahu, and Michael Ford, president of India, Prime Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi in the presence Boneham.

The company, through a wholly owned subsidiary in India, Ford India, will create two rooms, which include stamping, body-colored car manufacturing and assembly operations, as well as mechanical assembly and engine production.

"Ford's investment would create 5,000 direct jobs and 25,000 indirect jobs in the country," Prime Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi said after signing the MoU.

"Two of the facilities set up 460 acres of land, and the original capacity of 2.4 lakh units and 2.70 lakh engines a year. They must be up and running by 2014, Ford India's president Michael Boneham said.

Ford plans a company that exports 25% of production, paving the way for a car export hub of Gujarat, said the Gujarat government official.

Construction of two facilities is scheduled to open this year.

These new state-of-the-art facilities will help us achieve the goal of increasing global sales of nearly 50% by mid-decade, about eight million vehicles per year," Ford chief executive (Asia Pacific and Africa), said Joe Hinrichs.

Ford will start its operations very close to the Tata Nano is Sananda plant.

U.S.car giant has introduced 50 new cars and engines in its Asia Pacific and Africa in the middle of the decade. The company expects 60-70% growth will come from this region over the next 10 years.

"We will participate in throughout India. We would be bringing Ford capabilities to markets such as India, China and ASEAN to grow our business," Hinrichs said.

"Products that come in a wide range of India's elected, we are confident that a number of small cars to compete in the market,he said.

We are looking to export Ford Figo 50 markets around the world to Chennai. So if we continue to grow our portfolio of product opportunities to our potential we have in India for export around the world,Hinrichs said.

At the end of this year, we export 50 different countries. The moment we export around 2500 to 3000 units per month, said President of Ford India.

Ford is currently exporting about 19 countries such as Mexico, Baharain, Kenya.

Advertise to invest over USD 1000000000 Sananda at two factories, is Ford's investment in India set to exceed 2 billion dollars.

Ford's investment in the Asia Pacific region has risen to over USD 4 billion, with announcements of expansions made in the recent past.

"Ford has announced profit before tax of $ 5.7 billion and most of them from North America right now. But over the next decade, the 60-70% of our growth coming from Asia Pacific and Africa," Hinrichs said.