From the SMH:
Ford Motor will close its local car manufacturing plants in 2016 after almost nine decades in the country.
Ford, the smallest of the country’s three manufacturers after Toyota and Holden, will shut its assembly plant at Broadmeadows in northern Melbourne and an engine plant in Geelong to the west of the city, the company announced this morning.
About 1200 jobs will be cut as a result of the closures, the company said this morning.
…‘‘Australian manufacturing can’t keep its head above water,’’ said Katrina Ell, an economist at Moody’s Analytics in Sydney. ‘‘High labour costs mean we can’t compete long-term against lower cost countries, especially in Asia. The strong exchange rate is exacerbating Australia’s lack of competitiveness.’’
The removal of one of Australia’s three automotive manufacturers could threaten the industry as a whole as it becomes too small to support its own supply chain, Jac Nasser chairman of the world’s largest miner BHP Billiton and former chief executive of Ford globally, told an event in Melbourne last month.
‘‘Let’s assume one of the three decide to exit Australia in terms of manufacturing, then you end up potentially with a sub- scale supplier infrastructure,’’ he said. ‘‘And once that happens, I think it’s a domino effect.’’
The industry directly employs more than 45,000 people across the country, according to industry group the Federation of Automotive Products Manufacturers. A further 250,000 jobs are derived from related activities.
‘‘There will certainly be very large implications for businesses on the supply chain’’ if the closures are confirmed, Richard Reilly, chief executive of the Federation, said today.
