U.S. President-elect Donald Trump stated Ford Motor Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr informed him the car manufacturer is not going to move a Kentucky plant to Mexico, however the company stated it informed him the decision was to keep one automobile in U.S. production.
On Thursday, Trump published on Twitter: “I worked hard with Bill Ford to keep the Lincoln plant in Kentucky. I owed it to the great State of Kentucky for their confidence in me!”
“He will be keeping the Lincoln plant in Kentucky – no Mexico,” the President-elect tweeted.
However Ford has repeatedly informed it has no plans to close any U.S. plants and most likely might refrain from doing so under the terms of the present United Auto Workers agreement that ends in 2019.
This is not the first time Trump’s remarks about Ford production have been brought into question. Last year, he took credit for Ford moving work from Mexico to Ohio, while the automaker had made the decision in 2011 – long before Trump revealed a run for president.
Spokeswoman Christin Baker stated Ford “validated with the President-elect that our small Lincoln utility vehicle constructed at the Louisville Assembly plant will stay in Kentucky”.
“We are encouraged that President-elect Trump and the new Congress will pursue policies that will enhance U.S. competitiveness and make it possible to keep production of this automobile here in the United States,” she included, in a statement.
The company constructs both the Ford Escape and Lincoln MKC SUV at its Louisville Assembly Plant located in Kentucky, which Trump describes as the “Lincoln plant” and where Ford has about 4,700 employees. It likewise has a different truck plant in Louisville, where it constructs pickups and bigger SUVs.
It is not clear how many jobs would have been affected if the low-selling Lincoln MKC SUV had moved to Mexico.
Ford has sold about 20,000 MKC SUVs present year in the United States, compared to 258,000 Escape SUVs.
Ford stated last month it would stop production of the Escape and MKC at its Louisville Assembly Plant in Kentucky for two weeks because of low need.
Last year, it informed workers at the plant that it prepared to phase out MKC production by 2019 and move somewhere else.
The U.S. No. 2 car manufacturer is preparing to move some small-car production south of the border.
