Ford Expanding Louisville KY Plant - Boost Capacity

LOUISVILLE, Ky. September 6, 2002 Bloomberg News reported that Ford will invest $50 million in a Kentucky truck plant to increase production of F-Series Super Duty pickups as the world's second-largest automaker tries to boost truck sales.

The project at the Louisville plant involves a $25.2-million paint-shop expansion, $12 million to refurbish the body shop and $8 million to renovate the chassis line, spokesman Ed Lewis said. No jobs will be added and Lewis declined to say how much the current annual capacity of 348,000 trucks will rise.

The factory makes F250, F350, F450 and F550 vehicles and has about 6,000 workers. The expansion project is scheduled to be completed by April, Lewis said.

Super Duty trucks comprise about 40 percent of sales of F-Series trucks, the automaker's biggest-selling line of vehicles. F-Series sales totaled 557,973 this year through August, a 3.6-percent decline from the year-ago period, according to Autodata Corp