Australia: Ford shutdown after 91 years

Ford Australia will close its production line in Broadmeadows on Friday, 91 years on, the final Ford Falcon will roll off the production line. On the same day, Ford's rival Holden will close Cruze production in Adelaide, and Ford will shutter its engine plant in Geelong. In the course of the next year, Australia’s three car makers, Toyota too, will shut down completely.

In all, more than 5,000 production jobs, plus many more white collar and supplier positions, will be lost. Ford will reportedly continue operations in Australia, with product development, research and parts sales to carry on.

In the end, Australians will have bought more than 3.8 million Falcons over the past 56 years. From 1925 to today, Ford Australia built more than 5.9 million vehicles and more than 3.8 million Falcons since 1960. The Broadmeadows site built 4,356,628 vehicles of all shapes and sizes.

"Regardless of the drop in the volumes we said we were going to go for a period of time and we set ourselves out to do that," Ford Australia CEO Graeme Whickman said.

Federal Industry Minister Greg Hunt said Friday was the end of an era but also marked the beginning of a new phase for Australia's auto sector: "Later this month I will be heading to the United States and Japan to send a clear message to the global headquarters of Ford, General Motors and Toyota that Australia is committed to the automotive sector and we have the workers and skills they need," Mr Hunt said.

The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union said a lot of the workers will struggle to find new jobs. “These job losses couldn’t come at a worse time for these workers, many of whom will struggle to find work,” said Dave Smith, the AMWU National Vehicle Division Secretary.