The shutdown of Ford Australia has begun with the last ever Ute rolling-off the Broadmeadow’s assembly line on Friday, 70 days ahead of the total closure of its Australian manufacturing operations. From Cars Guide:
The final Ute down the line at the Broadmeadows plant, located just outside Melbourne, was a white XR6, accompanied by a grey XR6 Turbo.
More than 479,000 utes have been built at the Victorian plant since 1961…
Two Ford Australia sites – the engine plant at Geelong and the Falcon/Territory manufacturing line at Broadmeadows – will be permanently closed in October…
More than 850 workers will lose their jobs from the two sites, with 350 positions already culled…
“In September we’ll start shutting down parts of the plant that supply parts to the final assembly plant [ahead of October’s closure].”
The news follows Holden confirming last month that it will cease production on its Cruze small car on 7 October – the same day that Ford will shutter its Broadmeadows plant – resulting in 320 additional jobs being axed from Holden’s Elizabeth plant.
About 200 workers at Holden’s Port Melbourne engine plant are also expected to be retrenched by year’s end, with Holden intending to stockpile engines to see out its final year of production.
The remaining 1,000 Holden assembly workers will lose their jobs at the end of 2017 once the sedan, wagon and ute production ceases. Toyota will also shed some 6,500 workers once its Camry line is closed in Altona also at the end of 2017.
I have noted previously that the closure of the car industry over the year from October 2016 will have large employment impacts; although estimates vary.
On the rosy side sits the Productivity Commission (PC) and the Allen Consulting Group (ACG). The PC estimated that the car industry’s closure would cost up to 40,000 jobs overall, mostly in Victoria and South Australia, whereas ACG’s modelling, which used economic analysis from Monash University, estimated that the closure would cost around 33,000 jobs in Melbourne and around 6,600 jobs in Adelaide by 2018.
On the pessimistic side sits the University of Adelaide researchers, Lance Worrall and John Spoehr, who estimate that the car industry’s closure could cost up to 200,000 jobs once employment multipliers are added into the mix.
Regardless, the impact of the car industry’s closure will be large and represent a big hit to the economy, particularly in South Australia and Victoria. Manufacturing remains an important source of full-time jobs in both states, accounting for around 11% of total full-time employment in Victoria and 12% in South Australia.
The timing of the car industry’s closure is also poor, since these job losses are set to coincide with the cratering of mining investment and the expected downturn in dwelling construction.
