Ford plans to close their Australian plants in 2016 after 88 years of production.

[BrooklynBay]

http://wardsauto.com/plants-amp-production/ford-shutter-australian-plants-2016?NL=WAW-04&Issue=WAW-04_20130529_WAW-04_968&YM_RID=mbayarsky@aol.com&YM_MID=1396919&sfvc4enews=42

 

[Anime]

Ford is ending production after 88 years, but it’s not going away. Rather, it will become a full importer. Officials say it costs four times as much to build a car in Australia as it does in Asia, and twice as much as in Europe.

The word there being "production". They've just been doing the same thing as here, manufacturing the parts in China, shipping them to Oz to avoid the fees associated with importing complete automobiles, and assembling them inside the country.

They do the same thing in the United States.

The ONLY reasons global production of automobiles for the US hasn't gone completely to Asia are that it's still less expensive to "assemble" (not manufacture) them here because of the long-standing expenses involved in importing a complete vehicle. That, and how dependent the US economy is on employing people in factories assembling automobiles.