JAPAN TSUNAMI: FORD SHUTS DOWN SA PLANT

Ford South Africa is one of three of the company’s plants around the world which shut down this week because of shortages of parts from earthquake-hit Japan. The plants are located in South Africa (Silverton, Pretoria), Taiwan and China. The SA outfit builds the current Focus, Bantam bakkie (pickup), Ranger and Mazda BT-50 bakkies.

A number of car makers have been and are still affected by the earthquake which turned into a tsunami on the 11^th of March. Ford’s Taiwan factory builds cars like the Mondeo, Mazda3 and Mazda5, while in China they make the Fiesta, Mazda2 sedan and Mazda3.