Ford set to deal another blow to Canada economy

TORONTO, Jan 10 Reuters Reports that Ford Motor Co.will shut down a big truck plant near Toronto sent shivers on Thursday through the Canadian automotive industry, which has already been hit by a string of plant closures.

The reports said Ford is set to announce it will close its F-series pickup truck plant in Oakville, Ontario, as part of a plan that will eliminate almost 10,000 jobs over two years and include a writedown of $4 billion.

The plant, with about 1,400 workers on a single shift and 100 salaried workers, has long been targeted as one of the most likely to be closed. It builds about 500 trucks a day.

``This is a major blow to the Ontario economy and the Canadian economy as well,'' said Buzz Hargrove, head of the Canadian Auto Workers union, Canada's largest private-sector union.

``This is massive. Any time that you lose an assembly operation, that means not only the jobs in that assembly facility, but also jobs in the independent parts industry, it means services that are provided to that industry. Everyone in that community from the coffee shops to the department stores will all be impacted.''

Hargrove is scheduled to meet with Ford executives later on Thursday. They will ``give us the official notice of the impact of this restructuring Canada,'' he said.

Ford Canada spokesman John Arnone could not confirm the reports of the Ontario Truck Plant closing, but said Ford's Canadian operations will likely share in the pain being felt by the company elsewhere. He said the company will unveil its restructuring plans on Friday.

``It would be naive to believe that Canada would not be impacted by North American restructuring,'' Arnone told Reuters.

The Canadian automotive sector has been hit by thousands of layoffs as the economy has slowed over the past year.

Last year, General Motors Corp. said it will shutter its Ste-Therese, Quebec, car assembly plant, in September, throwing some 1,400 people out of work.

DaimlerChrysler said it will close two of its Canadian truck plants -- the Thomas Built bus factory in Woodstock, Ontario, which has about 300 workers, and the Western Star truck plant in Kelowna, British Columbia, which has 675 workers.

Parts makers have also closed or cut production drastically as orders from the vehicles makers shrink.

More plant closings and thousands more layoffs, with the resulting economic spinoffs, are expected in the industry, which employs more than 900,000 in Canada.

The plant closures come at a time when North America's big automakers enjoyed second best U.S. sales but profit margins have come under intense pressure from steep competition and attractive purchase incentives.