Ford to Move SUV, Jobs to Chicago, UAW Official Says

Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Ford Motor Co. is transferring production of the Explorer sport-utility vehicle, once the best- selling U.S. model in that segment, to the Chicago factory that builds the Taurus sedan, a union official said.

The move, which may add about 1,200 jobs in Chicago, will take place in this year's second half from a Louisville, Kentucky, plant that has built the Explorer since the 1990s, said Rocky Comito, president of a United Auto Workers local in the Explorer's current factory. Mark Truby, a Ford spokesman, declined to comment on the production transfer.

"The Explorer was the product that carried the company through most of the '90s," Comito said. The SUV is being redesigned on the more fuel-efficient car chassis used on the Taurus, he said.

Explorer sales in the U.S. slid 33 percent to 52,190 last year as more consumers bought smaller SUVs and cars with higher fuel economy. Ford sold more than 400,000 Explorers in 2000.

Ford is converting four light-truck plants to make cars, including Louisville, Truby said. The Kentucky factory is getting a new model based on the same underpinnings as the redesigned Focus small car introduced this month at the Detroit auto show, he said.

"It's not a good thing to see a product leave a plant, but we're getting something that will hopefully be the next generation's hot seller," Comito said

Louisville has about 1,100 workers building Explorers, and Ford probably will have a similar number to assemble the SUV in Chicago, which will add a second shift, Comito said.

News Conference

Ford scheduled a news conference at the Chicago plant at 9 a.m. local time with Mark Fields, Ford's president for the Americas, and Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, a Democrat.

Truby and Bob Reed, a spokesman for Quinn, declined to comment on a report in Crain's Chicago Business that the conference is to announce the production transfer.

Ford gained 51 cents, or 4.8 percent, to $11.03 at 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have risen sixfold in the past 12 months.

To contact the reporter on this story: Keith Naughton in Southfield, Michigan, at Knaughton3@bloomberg.net