Ford's Global Staff Layoffs Are Likely to Involve China
Yu Liyan
DATE:  May 23 2019
/ SOURCE:  yicai
Ford's Global Staff Layoffs Are Likely to Involve China Ford's Global Staff Layoffs Are Likely to Involve China

(Yicai Global) May 22 -- Ford Motor's plans to lay off 7,000 employees worldwide to save USD600 million a year in costs will include parts of the US automaker's operations in China.

But any redundancies would not include workers at Ford plants in the country or those at its Lincoln limousine brand, an official at Ford China, who requested anonymity, told Yicai Global yesterday. 

"It is largely true" that cuts will be made in China, the person said, adding that Ford will only lay off salaried employees as part of its organizational changes. He gave no further details about the plans.

Ford has 11 vehicle and power assembly lines in the country and more than 40,000 employees, including those at joint ventures, according to the Michigan-based firm's website. The automaker had previously said that it would start making Lincoln cars in China, the world's biggest auto market, by the end of this year.

The Chinese auto market has seen a continuous decline in sales over past months, so the performance of Changan Ford Automobile, one of Ford's major joint ventures, has not been good. It sold just 14,800 units last month, a 61 percent drop from a year earlier. In January to April, sales fell 69 percent to 51,600.

Ford plans to cut 10 percent of its worldwide white-collar headcount before August, it said on May 20, adding that about 20 percent of them would be senior executives. The firm had a total of 196,000 staff as of April 25, compared with 202,000 at the end of 2017.

Editor: Tang Shihua

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Keywords:   Layoff,Automaker,Ford China