Ford’s Turkey production plant shuts down

Bloomberg

An extended shutdown of a Ford production facility in Turkey is due to a supply shortage of a transmission produced in Bordeaux, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be named because the issue hasn’t been publicly announced.
The Ford Otosan plant in Yenikoy, Kocaeli province, a joint venture between Ford Motor Co. and Turkey’s Koc Holding, suspended production for six weeks from July 27 until Sept. 6, according to a statement from the Turkish unit. Two other plants will suspend output for three weeks from Aug. 14 for their regularly scheduled periodic maintenance, it said. Ford produces the Transit Courier and Tourneo Courier model small commercial vans in Turkey, and the extended shutdown could disrupt sales of those models, according to one person.
The transmission, known as the IB5, is being phased out and replaced by a new, more modern transmission, known as the MX65, which is going into the new version of Ford’s Fiesta small car.
In the transition at Ford’s transmission plant in Bordeaux, the company took down production of the old IB5 transmission too quickly and has found itself short of that essential component, according to one of the people.

Production Plan
The company has prioritised
delivery of the transmission to retail models such as the Focus, EcoSport sport-utility vehicle, B-Max and C-Max, according to one of the people.
The company expects to be able to make up lost production from Turkey later in the year, and to resolve the IB5 shortage by the end of the summer, the person said.
“We are taking an extended three-week shutdown on our Transit Courier/Tourneo Courier line at Ford Otosan,” Ford said in a statement yesterday. “Our full year production plan for the Transit Courier/Tourneo Courier remains unchanged.”
Ford shares were trading 1.1 percent lower at $11.06 at 5:50 p.m. in Istanbul. Ford Otosan shares dropped 1.1 percent to 45.32 liras.
In the first half of the year, Ford Motor Company reported that it sold 10,100 Transit Couriers and 8,300 Tourneo Couriers. Those two models accounted for 2.5
percent of Ford’s sales in its
20 primary European markets in the year’s first half. Ford Otosan reported revenue of $6.1 billion
in 2016 and analysts expect a similar figure this year, according
to data and estimates compiled
by Bloomberg.