Ford Motor Company Plans Retooling of Louisville Plant

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) (Dearborn, Michigan) is planning a $500 million retooling of the company's sports utility vehicle plant in Louisville, Kentucky.

Plans are to retool the existing Explorer SUV assembly plant to begin production of the Ford Escape and the Kuga, a smaller, compact crossover SUV that is currently made in Germany. The retooling will include the transfer of production equipment for the Explorer SUV assembly operations to the Chicago, Illinois, plant. The Louisville plant possibly will also be retooled for production of the Ford Escape SUV, which will be relocated from a Missouri plant. Ford is expecting to stop production at the Claycomo Assembly Plant near Kansas City, Missouri, by the end of 2011, shifting production to the Louisville facility.

Construction is anticipated to begin in December, when the Louisville plant will officially close to prepare for the retooling. Overall completion is slated for the fall of 2011, when the plant will reopen for production operations. Earlier plans were to close the plant and start retooling in the third quarter of this year, but recent news indicates that the plant will continue to run until the end of the year.

Ford is currently negotiating with Abel Construction Company (Louisville, Kentucky) to perform the retooling. Abel Construction currently performs a great deal of on-site work for Ford.

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