Ford’s latest Ranger heads for the high seas

Ford has started exporting the latest Ranger model from its manufacturing plants in SA to serve growing customer demand. The locally built Ranger is shipped to more than 100 global markets.

Late last year, the Silverton assembly plant in Pretoria became Ford’s third manufacturing hub across its International Markets Group (IMG) to start production of the model, which went on sale locally in December 2022.

“We are proud to commence with Next-Gen Ranger exports to customers around the world from our world-class manufacturing facility in SA,” Ockert Berry, vice-president of operations, Ford SA, said.

“Having modernised the local production and increased the installed capacity to a record 200,000 units a year, we remain committed to delivering quality Next-Gen Rangers from our Silverton assembly plant and Struandale engine plant.”

Monthly export volumes from SA operations are expected to be about two-thirds of total production, through the Durban and Gqeberha ports, with Europe being the largest market.

That makes Ford one of SA’s highest-volume vehicle exporters and a leader in the light commercial vehicle export category.

The two-port local strategy is essential for Ford’s higher export volumes, with the Gqeberha route to become more important once a more efficient and reliable rail corridor between Gauteng and the Eastern Cape is developed.

“We are excited about the huge export potential and continue to work with authorities to address bottlenecks such as the high level of congestion at Durban’s roll-on roll-off vehicle terminal, as well as a lack of rail infrastructure for Ford to direct most of its export as well as import through Gqeberha,” Berry said.

Ensuring that Ford’s SA operations are globally competitive and an integral part of the company’s turnaround strategy for its automotive operations, the Silverton plant was modernised and expanded through an investment of $1.05bn (R15.8bn), announced in 2021.

The extensive upgrades included building an on-site stamping plant, an automated body shop, establishing the only Ford-owned frame line, completely revamping the assembly line with the latest technologies and extensive investment in the latest tooling for supplier companies. These facilities were essential to unlock the plant’s installed capacity of 200,000 vehicles a year, while consistently delivering top quality for Ford’s customers.

An additional $34m was invested in the Struandale engine plant for the launch of the powerful 3.0l V6 diesel engine that headlines the NextGen Ranger line-up, along with upgrades for the latest 2.0l single turbo and 2.0l bi-turbo engines.

The expanded production for the Next-Gen Ranger also contributed to job creation, thanks to the addition of a third production shift at Silverton in 2022. This further reinforced Ford’s commitment to SA as one of five global manufacturing hubs for the Next-Gen Ranger.

A total of 1,200 jobs were added for the new shift, taking Ford’s total workforce to 5,500. About 10,000 jobs were added at supplier companies, with local manufacturing for the Next-Gen Ranger now supporting about 60,000 jobs in the value chain.