JOHANNESBURG - Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa (FMCSA) has said it planned to create at least 1200 new jobs at its Silverton assembly plant in Pretoria as it expanded production in order to meet increasing demand for the new Ranger, Ranger Raptor and Everest.
The company said yesterday that expanded production would add about 10000 jobs within the total value chain. FMCSA said the shift would begin working in August to take its total headcount in South Africa to more than 5000 employees.
“The R3billion investment in our South African plants announced in 2017 is now coming to fruition with the addition of a third shift to increase our production output,” said Ockert Berry, vice-president operations, Ford Middle East and Africa. Berry said the plant’s production capacity had expanded from 124000 vehicles a year to 168000 units more than original capacity when the current Ranger programme started in 2011.
“The third shift will allow us to ramp-up our production from the current 506 vehicles assembled per day to a peak of 720 units to satisfy the strong demand from customers in South Africa, as well as for our crucial exports to 148 markets around the world,” he said. FMCSA’s investment between 2009 and 2018 has reached R11 billion, accounting for 1percent of the country’s GDP. Ford’s local production also exports engines to North America, China and several customer plants in Europe.