Ford to infuse add’l P1.1B in Sta Rosa plant

Ford Motor Co. is investing an additional P1.1 billion in its Sta. Rosa plant in Laguna to build the first flexible fuel engine production plant in the Asia-Pacific region.

This was announced yesterday by visiting Ford corporate vice president and president of Ford Asia Pacific and Africa Peter Daniel in a press conference.

Daniel also paid a courtesy call on President Arroyo earlier in the day.

"The P1.1 billion would be used to expand Ford’s Sta. Rosa plant and to acquire new machines and equipment to manufacture the new engines," Daniel said.

The Ford flexi-fuel engine plant in the Philippines would be the first in the region and would take the Philippine industry to a new level, Daniel said.

Daniel pointed out that Ford’s additional P1.1 billion investment is an indication of Ford’s commitment and confidence in the Philippines.

Ford plans to manufacture over the next five years 100,000 units of flexi-fuel engines worth $100 million.

Daniel said majority or 80 percent of Ford’s engine production would be for export to the Asian region.

Ford plans to initially install the flexi-fuel engines in its Focus passenger car model, but is lining up other models on which to use the new engines which would run on a combination of regular gasoline and ethanol.

The engines would be rated to run on a minimum 20 percent blend of ethanol.

The extended plant is scheduled for completion by end-2006 and would result in additional employment of 90 workers.

Daniel cited the government’s good support, a competent Filipino workforce and tremendous market potential for its decision to choose the Philippines as its first flexi-fuel engine production plant in the Asia-Pacific.

Ford, Daniel pointed out, is the first and still the only volume exporter of completely built up units from the Philippines.

To date, he said, Ford has exported close to 40,000 units with a total value of $500 million.

Ford’s domestic sales, according to Henry Co, president of the Ford Motor Group Philippines, will likely post a nine percent growth this year, increasing about one percent over last year’s growth of 8.3 percent.

Next year, Ford Philippines is projecting a modest 12 percent growth as it plans to introduce new models.