Ford Valencia Plant
The Ford Valencia Body and Assembly is a major car assembly plant located at Almussafes on the southern edge of the Valencia conurbation, Spain.
In 1973 the Ford Motor Company headed by Henry Ford II purchased 270 acres (1.1 km2) of orchard on the edge of Valencia. Exactly 1,000 days later, on 18 October 1976, the first Ford Fiesta rolled off the production line. Just a week after that, on 25 October 1976, the king formally inaugurated the plant. Construction had cost 680 million dollars.
At the time when the plant was planned, Francisco Franco was still in charge of the Spanish government which pursued a fiercely mercantilist economic policy. The relatively short period that elapsed between the submission by Ford, on 23 December 1972, of their plan to the government and the plant's inauguration was seen as evidence of the government's enthusiasm for the project. The domestic auto-industry at this time was nevertheless strongly protected, comprising partnerships between foreign automakers and Madrid based interests. There was a requirement that Spanish built cars should incorporate at least 95% "domestic content" with any imported components subject to a 30% tariff: there was a further requirement that none of the foreign automakers could hold more than 49% of the capital of a Spanish-based car manufacturer. Negotiations took place between Ford executive Dick Holmes and the Spanish government to secure a less restrictive framework for the Ford project in view of the size and potential benefit to Spain from the investment, but Ford were still required to commit to exporting two thirds of the plant's production outside Spain (which seems to have aligned with their existing objectives), and restricting their penetration of the Spanish domestic auto-market to less than 10%. Political changes following Franco's death later culminated with Spain joining the European Economic Community in 1986 which rendered these restrictions redundant.
The plant was built and fitted out under the leadership of Hanns Brand, who had previously been responsible for building the recently opened Ford Saarlouis plant, which provided the blue-print for the Valencia project.
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