Friday, February 11, 2011

Ford Motor's Plant in Camacari, Brazil

Henry Ford was not the inventor of the automobile but his company brought two existing technologies together--assembly line and manufacturing--to make the car affordable to the majority of the population.

Ford Motor Company reported the largest annual loss in company history in 2006 of $12.7 billion, and estimated that it would not return to profitability until 2009. However, Ford surprised Wall Street in the second quarter of 2007 by posting a $750 million profit. Despite the gains, the company finished the year with a $2.7 billion loss, largely attributed to finance restructuring at Volvo. (Wikipedia). According to CNN Money, Ford has had its first profitable year since 2005.

Ford did not take one dime of stimulus money but instead it borrowed heavily in the past 2 years and has managed to leverage these loans with solid assets within the company. Ford has tighten its belt to survive the recession.

Greedy unions have ruined the U.S. auto industry just like they have brought city municipalities to their knees all over America. As this video says, the United Auto Workers Union is adverse to this sort of supplier integration. It has been proven that not only is the union work force a terrible expense for the auto industry, it’s just flat-out less productive than it’s non-union counterparts. Unions have way too much control.

The Unions forced our American auto companies manufacturing plants offshore. When will they wake up?


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

OEMs build plants in Brazil to serve the local market and avoid import tariffs, NOT to escape unions. Supplier integration was primarily out of necessity to get suppliers to locate in Camacari (outside of core manufacturing areas in Brazil). Unions in SA are much stronger and more difficult to work with than those in the US. Research over rhetoric please.

Lynn Anderson said...

I comend Ford for being so innovative since inception. Now don't tell me that labor costs are the same in Camacari as in the U.S.