Ford to Shift Medium-Duty Truck Production From Mexico to Ohio

Ford confirms it will move production of its F-650 and F-750 medium-duty trucks from a Mexico facility to its Avon Lake, OH, assembly plant in spring 2015.

The trucks currently are built at the Blue Diamond truck joint venture with Navistar International in Escobedo, Mexico.

As part of the production shift, the automaker is investing $168 million to retool the Ohio plant, which currently produces the E-Series van and other commercial vehicles.

Ford E-Series output will cease later this year, although cutaway vans and stripped chassis will continue to be built at the plant through most of the decade.

“Building these trucks in-house will utilize our expertise from our other tough truck and commercial-vehicle lines to give our customers a better product at a competitive price,” Joe Hinrichs, president-The Americas, says in a statement.

The production shift was outlined in the collective bargaining agreement Ford inked with the UAW in 2011.