Ford Motor to invest $2.3 bln to boost output in Brazil

Ford Motor Co unveiled plans on Friday to invest 4 billion reais ($2.26 billion) to boost output in Brazil as record-low borrowing costs and a rapid economic recovery in Latin America's largest country stoke demand for new cars.

Most of the investments will go to Ford's state-of-the-art plant in Camacari, a sprawling compound in the northeastern state of Bahia that churns out a vehicle every 80 seconds. The company, like rivals Fiat SpA and Volkswagen AG, has benefited from government tax incentives and a decline in interest rates that are fueling record Brazil sales in 2009.

"This is a very large investment for Ford," Mark Fields, the company's president for the Americas, told an audience of uniformed workers and local politicians that included Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

"For us this shows our confidence in the country, in the economy and the workers and consumers here in Brazil."

Ford plans to spend 2.8 billion reais to increase output by 20 percent to 300,000 vehicles a year at the Camacari plant and to modernize its Troller unit in Ceara state that makes off-road vehicles, said Marcos de Oliveira, chief executive for Brazil and the Mercosur region.

Investments in Camacari, which produces the popular pint-sized sport utility vehicle EcoSport and the Fiesta subcompact, should create 1,000 jobs, he added.

The remaining 1.2 billion reais will go to Ford's factories in Sao Paulo state, including its Sao Bernardo plant and a testing facility in Tatui.

"We decided to continue to invest in Brazil because it is our third-largest market and it is a country with a market that continues to grow," Fields said.

Brazil has been a rare bright spot for global automakers, which are suffering much more in core markets like the United States and Europe. Car sales in the country are on track to hit another record in 2009, boosted by government tax incentives that helped lower car prices and lure consumers to showrooms.

The tax breaks are set to expire at the end of December, but Brazil's automobile dealers' association expects sales to grow another 9 percent in 2010, when the country is forecast to expand a hefty 5 percent.

As part of the investment plan, Brazil's government will extend state and federal tax breaks to Ford until 2015.