– Ford Motor Co. will eliminate one shift and 1,000 jobs in January at its Hazelwood, Mo., assembly plant that produces the Ford Explorer, Mercury Mountaineer and Lincoln Aviator. Ford had planned to eliminate the shift by April as part of revitalization announced in January 2002 but extended the deadline this year. Ford says the move is in response to a market shift to car-based sport-utility vehicles from truck-based SUVs such as the Explorer.
– Jaguar Cars is cutting production at its three British plants because of poor sales of its luxury cars in the U.S. The company will drop 15,000 cars from production through year-end–a reduction of 11 percent. Jaguar’s U.S. sales were down 3 percent in the first six months of the year from a year earlier.
