Genk Body & Assembly

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Genk Body & Assembly was a Ford automobile factory in Genk, Belgium, just over an hour to the west of the company's European head office in Cologne, Germany. The site spanned 6,135,630 square feet (140.9 acres). The plant employed approx 4,300 workers when it closed in 2014.[1]

The plant opened in the early 1960s. The first mainstream car built there was Ford's first front wheel drive volume model, the Ford Taunus P4. Later on the plant focused on producing mid-sized family cars including the company's Sierra and Mondeo models.

Models built

Imager Model Years Number Image Model Years Number
Ford Taunus P4/12M 1963-1966 314,270 Ford Mondeo II 1996-2000 1,200,069
Ford Taunus P5/17M 1965-1966 13,765 Ford Transit VI 2000-2004 384,238
Ford Transit II/III/IV/V 1965-2000 1,857,635 Ford Mondeo III 2000-2007 1,418,515
Ford Taunus P6 12M/15M 1966-1970 518,602 Ford S-MAX I 2006-2010 235,890
Ford Escort 1968-1970 258,205 Ford Galaxy III 2006-2010 120,192
Ford Taunus P7/20M 1969-1970 19,534 Ford Mondeo IV 2007-2010 567,582
Ford Taunus 1970-1982 2,695,796 Ford Mondeo IVb 2010-2014
Ford Sierra I 1982-1992 2,741,713 Ford S-MAX Ib 2010-2014
Ford Mondeo I 1992-1996 1,362,538 Ford Galaxy IIIb 2010-2014

Closure

Ford announced in October 2012 that it was planning to close its Genk plant at the end of 2014 in response to longstanding over-capacity problems in Europe,[2][3] as part of a larger closure plan that will see the manufacturer's European capacity slashed by 20%, with further capacity cuts penciled in should the company not succeed in returning to higher European sales volumes.[4] The next generation of the Ford Mondeo was assembled, for the European market, at the Valencia plant.

Reports in March 2013 indicated that agreement with the workers' representatives would see Ford paying out an average of €144,000 (at the time equivalent to US$187,500) for each of the 4,000 workers to be laid off. It was noted that this was significantly below the US$202,700 per worker that had been the price reportedly paid by General Motors at the closure in 2010 of their Antwerp facility.[4]

At the end of 2016 it was estimated that the decontamination of the site would cost 11.4 million euros.[5]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Belgium:Genk Body and Assembly". origin-corporate.ford.com. Archived from the original on 2015-04-12. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  2. ^ "Newspress".[dead link]
  3. ^ "Ford confirms plans to close Belgian factory". BBC News. 24 October 2012. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  4. ^ a b "187.500 pro Arbeiter: Ford erkauft sich Werksschließung in Genk". Handelsblatt (in German). 20 March 2013. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
  5. ^ "Sanering sterk vervuilde zones Ford Genk zal 11,4 miljoen euro kosten". Het Belang van Limburg (in Dutch). 31 December 2016. Retrieved 15 June 2017.


50°55′18″N 5°30′26″E / 50.9217°N 5.5072°E / 50.9217; 5.5072