Tshwane blackouts delay Ford Ranger production by 720 units a day

Ford Motor Company Africa has confirmed that production at its Silverton Plant outside Pretoria has been forced to grind to a halt following the collapse of several electricity pylons outside the city over the Easter long weekend.

Sabotage?

On Monday, large sections of Pretoria East were thrown into darkness after a number of 132-kilovolts pylons fell onto the N4 highway in what the City of Tshwane described as being an apparent act of vandalism of the structures.

“The estimated time for restoration is not available yet. The city will keep its consumers updated on the developments and apologises for the inconvenience caused,” City of Tshwane spokesperson Selby Bokaba said at the time.

Following a visit to the scene on Tuesday, Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said Eskom had been included in order to help with the restoration. By Tuesday evening, electricity had been restored to 50% of the affected area.

Nothing since Friday

In a subsequent interview with radio station 702 on Tuesday evening, Ford South Africa President, Neale Hill, said it continues to remain in the dark as to when power will be back-up in order for production of the Ranger and its twin, the Volkswagen Amarok, to resume.

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According to Hill, the Blue Oval had been expected to recommence production on Tuesday, after shutting down on Monday, as a result of the Family Day public holiday, only to be confronted with no electricity.

“We lost an entire day’s production today (Tuesday) and it looks like we are going to be down for the whole of tomorrow and for the foreseeable future,” Hill told show host Bruce Whitfield.

He added that the automaker, whose investment two years ago of R15.8-billion into Silverton for the T6.2 Ranger and Amarok had been a local automotive industry record, had started with the ramp-up in production after the various local launches until being forced stop as a result of cut in power.

“Demand for the new [Ford] Ranger has been phenomenal not only from South Africa, but also from the market we export to. So, it is certainly a big blow,” Hill said, adding that its suppliers around the Pretoria area and in other parts of the country are also set to be hamstrung until a solution is found.

“When the production line stops, it gets to the point where our suppliers can’t continue to produce stock because they run out space. And at 720 units a day, you can imagine all the components and inventory that goes in to that,” Hill continues.

Cost unknown

In addition, Hill said that the catch-up game, once electricity is back-up and running, will prove difficult for Ford based on the three-shift, five-day production model it employs.

“A lot of our suppliers are having to work six or seven days a week just to meet our demands. So, we will sit down and access what the absolute volume of lost production is when we get back up and running and that will take a couple days still because once they switch the power on, we will have to see whether the grid is stable,” Hill said.

“Once we have done the final tally in terms of how many units we are behind, we will then have to access if and when we can potentially catch it back. We certainly would love to, but we could also come done to the pure fiscals and say, we are not going to catch all of them back”.

At present, it remains unknown as to how much the shutdown will cost Ford as this will most likely only be known once production has restarted.

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