Ford to move Focus, C-Max production

Ford will stop building the C-Max and Focus at its Wayne, Michigan plant in 2018, Automotive News is reporting.

Ford will shift production of its next-generation compact cars from Michigan to Mexico in the next couple of years.

Spokeswoman Kristina Adamski said the company must make production decisions that allow it to remain competitive.

“In spite of this announcement, we want to ensure both the membership of Local 900 and the community that UAW members will continue to produce world-class quality vehicles with pride and passion now and beyond 2018, which remains a tradition of all United Auto Workers”.

Ford is not saying where the next generation Focus will be produced, but there are reports quoting UAW sources that the product is being moved to Mexico.

Ford now builds the Focus in nine plants on four continents, including two in China.

The news came Thursday in a letter from the United Auto Workers as it begins negotiations over the Wayne, Mich. plant that now builds the Focus sedan and hatchback and the C-Max hybrids for North America, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Focus sales fell 16 percent in June and 3.2 percent in the first half of 2015. It was converted to small auto production using part of a $5.9 billion federal loan.

President Obama with the Focus at the Michigan Assembly Plant in January. For most of its history, Ford built big trucks and SUVs such as the Ford Bronco, F-150, Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator at the plant before it was idled in 2008 as the automaker’s sales were hurt by high gas prices and the worst recession in decades.