The Philippine auto industry endured another setback as Ford Motor Company announced that it would shut down its assembly plant in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, by the end of 2012, citing a small local market and insufficient supply base. The ABS-CBN news report quotes Ford ASEAN president Peter Fleet as saying that plant operations no longer generate acceptable returns for shareholders given the lack of scale of the Philippine market and the small parts supply base. The plant capacity is only 25,000 units, a fraction of the capacity of its factories in Thailand.
The 250 employees at the plant will reportedly be given the option of joining overseas plants or joining the sales company. Ford will continue its sales operation in the Philippines.
The Ford assembly plant was the first and for a time the only one to export completely-built units, of Escape, Focus, Lynx, Mazda3, and Mazda Tribute for the ASEAN market. Ford Group Philippines president Randy Krieger was quoted, “”This is a very difficult decision. The company studied every possible scenario and opportunity, but we could not make a strong enough business case for future manufacturing.”
Ford had invested P4 billion in the plant. It was capable of producing at least four different vehicle platforms. It opened in 1999 and had exported more than 80,000 vehicles worth $1 billion to Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia since 2002.
The writing had been on the wall for the plant operations, as the plant had ceased to produce the Mazda Tribute in 2009, the Mazda3 and Focus this year.
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