Ford’s factory in Turkey, which produces the large Transit van as well as the bestselling Transit Custom medium van, has suspended the manufacture of commercial vehicles until 13 June 2021.
Production of the smaller Transit Courier and Transit Connect vans, as well as the Ranger pickup, which are all produced at other plants, is currently unaffected.
What has caused production to stop?
A global shortage of semiconductors for the vans’ electronics systems is the cause of the shutdown, a situation that has impacted on other car and commercial vehicle producers across the globe.
Due to the Covid-19 global pandemic causing millions of people across the world to spend more time at home, there’s been a surge in demand for smartphones, tablets, laptops and other electronic devices.
Semiconductors that would otherwise have been destined for the automotive sector have instead found their way into personal appliances.
At the time this was a convenient solution given that most vehicle-producing plants had closed to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
A Ford spokesperson confirmed that the company would ‘continue to monitor the situation and work on mitigation plans over the coming weeks and months as this fluid situation develops’.
How long will the plant be closed for?
By the time Transit and Transit Custom production resumes on 13 June 2021 it will have been closed for eight weeks.
Despite that, Ford is confident that customers who have placed orders for brand new vans will not be affected by the production suspension.
That’s because of that eight-week period, one week is a national holiday in Turkey, while a further fortnight has been absorbed by bringing the planned summer shutdown period forward.
Many manufacturing companies will typically close for a period of time in the summer to allow for servicing and reparations to take place, coinciding with a period of time when most of its employees would typically request time off anyway.
Could the shutdown see prices of used vans increase?
There’s already evidence to suggest that prices of used light commercial vehicles were climbing anyway, following pent-up demand after the first lockdown in 2020.
Whether the Ford situation will cause them to rise further is debatable – there would have to be serious delay in the supply of factory fresh Transits to cause buyers to cancel their orders and consequently increase demand for nearly new examples.
Such a scenario seems unlikely based on the current situation.
Have other van manufacturers halted production?
While various large automotive groups have confirmed that production of some car models has been halted, there has been no confirmation at this stage that there will be similar holdups with commercial vehicle manufacturing.
We will closely monitor this situation and update this page accordingly, so keep it bookmarked for the latest news on the semiconductor crisis.
Also read:
>> Ford fits Smart Mirror to Transit and Transit Custom
>> How good is the Transit Custom Plug-in Hybrid?
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