Ford to idle assembly plants in Minnesota and Virginia

Ford Motor Co. today announced that its Twin Cities Assembly Plant in St. Paul, Minn., and the Norfolk Assembly Plant in Virginia will be idled in 2008 as part of the company's Way Forward plan to restore North American automotive operations to profitability no later than 2008.

The Way Forward plan, which was announced on Jan. 23, is a comprehensive roadmap to strengthen the company's Ford, Lincoln and Mercury brands through innovative new products, better quality, straightforward pricing, lower costs and more flexible, efficient operations. As part of the plan, Ford said in January that it would idle and cease manufacturing operations at 14 plants, including seven assembly plants.

In addition to Norfolk and Twin Cities, the plants announced to date include Wixom (Mich.) Assembly, St. Louis Assembly, Atlanta Assembly, Windsor (Ontario) Casting and Batavia (Ohio) Transmission.

More information can be found here.