Ford Spain Adds Third Shift at Transit Connect Plant

MADRID – Ford Spain hires 1,340 workers at its Almussafes plant as it adds a third shift of production for the next-generation Transit Connect compact van.

The new hires comprise about 650 technicians, 100 engineers and 550 production workers on the third shift, originally scheduled to be added in mid-2014. The plant’s workforce will number 7,200 when the third shift comes on line Sept. 2.

Transit Connect sales launch next month, and Ford plans daily production of 1,300 units.

Ford also will create 500 jobs at Almussafes with the scheduled autumn-2014 launch of the Mondeo sedan. Coupled with last October’s production launch of the C-Max compact hybrid and Kuga cross/utility vehicle, the auto maker has hired more than 1,800 workers at the plant in the past 18 months.

The new-generation Galaxy and S-Max multipurpose vehicles also will be assembled at Almussafes after being moved from the Genk plant in Belgium, which Ford Europe plans to close next year.

The large number of orders for the Kuga (Escape), particularly from Russia, made it necessary for Almussafes employees to work on Saturdays during June and July.

The addition of the Transit Connect and Tourneo Connect is expected to raise output at the Spanish plant to 230,000 units in 2013, up 80% from 2012. Production is forecast to reach 300,000 in 2014, Ford officials have said.