While Ford Motor Company's North American plants normally shut down for two weeks in July, the automaker has announced that it will be keeping its SUV manufacturing plant in Kentucky open for an extra week this summer.
This will allow the Louisville Assembly Plant to produce more than 8,500 new vehicles to help meet the demand for the Ford Escape and Lincoln MKC.
According to The Detroit News, "U.S. sales of the Escape were up 3 percent through May, while MKC sales were up 10 percent." Conversely, overall industry sales are down 2 percent, according to Autodata Corp.
This one-week shutdown only applies to Ford's Kentucky Assembly Plant. The rest of the manufacture's North American plants will be closing for two weeks.
Ford has also said that a few of their North American parts plants will also be taking one week instead of two. This includes metal stamping plants in Chicago and Michigan and an engine plant in Mexico.
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