Ford to possibly leave Australia

[you pick one]

Apart from the fact you can't artificially lower the dollar by any significant amount as it is a floating rate, and subject to huge amounts of financial transactions every day, having a floating rate has been massively successful for Australia for the past 25-odd years, acting as a cushion for our economy. Keating's greatest legacy.

That makes alot of sense Tex obviously haven't fell of a bull in a while.

 

[Tex_21]

Spend more time talking bull markets than bulls these days.

 

[vinum coupe]

The dollar needs to stay up for about 3 years.
And then i'm more than happy for the arse to fall out.

 

[topic97]

My old man has been at Ford Geelong for 40 years, it is sad what is happening there. Geelong will become the next Detroit if it closes. Will be a sad day for the town.

Ooh, I could then move down there with my mum & younger sister in a trailer park & forge my way as a white rapper...

In all seriousness, terrible terrible news for the city & employees.
Probably won't be long until Holden meet a similar demise - very very sad for Australia's once superior industry.

 

[Hoffy95]

Apart from the fact you can't artificially lower the dollar by any significant amount as it is a floating rate, and subject to huge amounts of financial transactions every day, having a floating rate has been massively successful for Australia for the past 25-odd years, acting as a cushion for our economy. Keating's greatest legacy.

Let it float away on the FTSE.

 

[Turbocat]

Some people not familiar with the industry think a magic bullet will solve it all - governments have negligent in giving too much or not enough support , that manufactures like foresight and should just do this or that , just make a smaller car or more modern one or a hybrid... or infact they are sick of the issue being raised and wish the whole industry would just hurry up and die...

There is no easy solution , the industry would never be established from scratch under current circumstances today. Its anachronism , an industry that was always protected because of the benefits it brought to the economy, to many other sub suppliers , to trade training and many other things.
Now we live in an era of Greenhouse demands , global trade ,theoretical level playing grounds, low to zero tarrifs and and no quotas , and a public whos taste in genral has become a tuned to variation in choice.

The public just don't strongly want a Falcon size car anymore. Once upon a time , Austrailans loved simplicity of choice. A car that was multi purpose - take dad to work, mum to the super market and , tow the van on holidays etc. It was the era that created our car culture of Holden V Ford , Bathhurst etc.

The price of and availability imported cars have contributed to change that. Just like when supermarkets have killed small stores with infinite choice and so it is with cars. The Button Scheme reduced the real price of cars but in the process have changed what the public values. When once the market was 500,000 with 250/300 either Falcon/Kingswood(pre comodore) it has now evolved to be a market over 1,000,000 and the top selling vehicle is a Mazda with around 40,000 units.

No manufacturer would setup a facility for that number it would require a substantial export target , maybe 250,000 plus local sales. To get any real industry now you are competing against governments the world over who are quite willing to supply not just a few Million but 100's of Millions to get the industry in their country. Its not just cheep labour as the industry is less and less reliant on numbers as machine produce more with less staff. The less staff you need , the more knowledge they are required to have and their value is elevated. Rather Reduced rates , tax , staff cost , political stability all contribute to where plants are based but population is a major factor. China and India have the home market the big manufactures all want a piece of.

What this mean for the Cats. Well history will go a long way but long, long term its anyones guess. Just like with the Tennis a few years ago , Football is not related directly to core business. Even its relationship to car racing might be debatable if all vehicles are imported.Geelong FC will go on , no matter what but it will be a sad day when the Blue and White Hoops don't have the Blue and White Oval on the jumper.

 

[vealesy]

This would be cool.

 

[vealesy]

 

[Stig_90]

Possible replacements?

 

[Saint]

The sponsorship is to sell cars. It's been great that they've been made in Geelong, bought in Geelong and driven to Geelong games where they're a sponsor, but times have changed. Ford will still sponsor Geelong as they'll still be selling cars in Australia.

It's if they decide to pull out of the market of car sales that the Cats would lose a sponsor.

It's still a sad day for the town, but inevitable given the now global nature of the car industry. Geelong is a long way from any population centre of note.

 

[rickster]

Speaking to someone that used to work there within the last ten years.

The workers had constructed dugouts under the machine presses and set up camp beds so they could hide/have a nap while on a shift.

 

[Strangled Cat]

Some people not familiar with the industry think a magic bullet will solve it all - governments have negligent in giving too much or not enough support , that manufactures like foresight and should just do this or that , just make a smaller car or more modern one or a hybrid... or infact they are sick of the issue being raised and wish the whole industry would just hurry up and die...

There is no easy solution , the industry would never be established from scratch under current circumstances today. Its anachronism , an industry that was always protected because of the benefits it brought to the economy, to many other sub suppliers , to trade training and many other things.
Now we live in an era of Greenhouse demands , global trade ,theoretical level playing grounds, low to zero tarrifs and and no quotas , and a public whos taste in genral has become a tuned to variation in choice.

The public just don't strongly want a Falcon size car anymore. Once upon a time , Austrailans loved simplicity of choice. A car that was multi purpose - take dad to work, mum to the super market and , tow the van on holidays etc. It was the era that created our car culture of Holden V Ford , Bathhurst etc.

The price of and availability imported cars have contributed to change that. Just like when supermarkets have killed small stores with infinite choice and so it is with cars. The Button Scheme reduced the real price of cars but in the process have changed what the public values. When once the market was 500,000 with 250/300 either Falcon/Kingswood(pre comodore) it has now evolved to be a market over 1,000,000 and the top selling vehicle is a Mazda with around 40,000 units.

No manufacturer would setup a facility for that number it would require a substantial export target , maybe 250,000 plus local sales. To get any real industry now you are competing against governments the world over who are quite willing to supply not just a few Million but 100's of Millions to get the industry in their country. Its not just cheep labour as the industry is less and less reliant on numbers as machine produce more with less staff. The less staff you need , the more knowledge they are required to have and their value is elevated. Rather Reduced rates , tax , staff cost , political stability all contribute to where plants are based but population is a major factor. China and India have the home market the big manufactures all want a piece of.

What this mean for the Cats. Well history will go a long way but long, long term its anyones guess. Just like with the Tennis a few years ago , Football is not related directly to core business. Even its relationship to car racing might be debatable if all vehicles are imported.Geelong FC will go on , no matter what but it will be a sad day when the Blue and White Hoops don't have the Blue and White Oval on the jumper.

Quality post once again Turbocat. You don't drive an XR6 Turbo by any chance do you? When you think about it, it really is surprising that FoA has lasted this long not only producing an orphan model with very little export market, but an orphan engine contained within that vehicle which has no flexibility to be used in any other Ford vehicle due to it's dimensions.

As I posted earlier, the only hope FoA had to keep producing the Falcon was replacing the I6 with an imported V6. Financial reasons caused a boardroom backflip, which resulted in a combination of Government financial packages to ensure manufacturing stayed in Australia for a time which coincided with tougher emission laws being introduced across the board. Make no mistake, there WILL NOT be a Falcon replacement and the Straight 6 Geelong engine is doomed. As an avid Ford fan and Geelong ex pat it does pain me greatly to say so, but very sadly it's true.

 

[archilino]

And yet the plant was recently rigged so it's now setup for European production, so hopefully they can convince Detroit to build the next-gen mondeo & Kuga here. Sadly the falcon & Territory's days are numbered which is a shame as you can't buy a large RWD Sedan/ute/SUV that comes with a choice of turbo 4, I6 T6 Diesel and supercharged V8 anywhere in the world for the price. Hopefully they can find another platform to build otherwise tens of thousands of jobs will go with them.

 

[Sttew]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-07-30/ford-expected-to-end-local-production/4164204?WT.svl=news1

Could spell the end of one of world sports longest running partnerships.

Unlikely. Ford will need GFC more than ever, assuming they maintain a presence in Australia selling imported cars, like Nissan.