ASIMCO displays CGI cylinder heads

One of the less obvious booths at last month's IAA commercial vehicle exhibition in Hannover, Germany, amidst all the glitz and glamour of the various commercial vehicle displays, was that of the ASIMCO Group.

£80m EU loan for Turkish Transit plant

It is curious that in the year General Motors confirmed Luton, UK as the focus of its European Vivaro van production, Ford elected to vacate its Swaythling, Southampton plant in favour of centralised Transit van production in Turkey where costs are lower.

The interesting difference is that Turkey is effectively outside the principal European trading community. However, it cannot be ignored that in June this year, the European Investment Bank (EIB) approved a £80 million loan to help ramp up production of Transit vans at the Ford Otosan facility at Kocaeli, Turkey.

The UK, France, Germany and Italy are the main source of funds for the EIB.

The loan was agreed as part of a billion dollar investment plan – about £600 million – for Ford’s 395-acre site in Kocaeli. The application for the loan was made in October 2011 to finance the modernisation of the plant ahead of new generation Transit 6.

End of UK Ford Transit

As  many in the industry have been forecasting, Ford is finally shuttering its Southampton plant where over two million Transit vans have been built.

It seems only yesterday that Ford Motor Company was making plans to turn the company’s Southampton, UK plant from making Transit vans to chassis- cabs in readiness for the launch of Transit 6.

That was in 2008. Since then, with Transit 6 now launched, the market in Europe has changed. The euro crisis and the economic downturn have forced Ford to “restructure”, as vehicle demand declines. The result is that Ford’s 2008/9 plans to ‘save’ its UK Transit plant in the wake of the 2012 run-out of Transit 5 have been ditched.

Even as close as August 2010, Ford was still preparing for the Southampton upgrade that would see the removal of the present body framing lines and robotised body-in-white production. There was even talk earlier this year Transit 6 chassis-cabs still being built at Southampton. Ford even extended the run-out of the Transit line from 2011 to 2012 in readiness for the launch of Transit 6 in 2013.