Ford halts production in Nanjing due to parts shortage

Global Times - Ford Motor said on Tuesday that it has idled production at its Nanjing facility for a week as a precautionary move, as parts availability remains sketchy after the recent quake in Japan had slowed delivery of parts out of that nation.

According to a company statement, starting from Monday, the company will halt production for one week at its Chang'an Ford Mazda Auto-mobile assembly plant in Nanjing, where the Ford Fiesta is produced.

The work stoppage will not be lost time as the company plans to push ahead previously scheduled maintenance downtime to this week.

"It is an adjustment in production planning as each year we will have a maintenance shutdown," Yang Jiehua, Ford Motor (China) Ltd spokeswoman, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Yang said the move is a preventive measure to ensure the parts supplies are available.

Meanwhile, Ford will also push ahead previously scheduled downtime or take temporary downtime in North America, Europe and other markets in Asia Pacific for the same reason, but Ford said in the statement that its previous announcements on global production volume are unchanged at this point.

In an earlier interview with the Global Times, Nigel Harris, general manager of Chang'an Ford Mazda Automobile explained that the shortage of auto parts in Japan "will not have a substantive impact on Ford."