As demand for pickups is rising, Ford Motor Co. is to announce that it will create 2000 new positions at its Claycomo car plant located in Kansas City. The creation of new jobs is aimed at meeting sharply growing demand for pickup trucks driven by increases in the US housing market. The world-known US carmaker plans to boost production of its best-selling F-150 pickup trucks as it just wants to earn from the upward trend in the industry.

Expansion plans of Ford

Dearborn-based Ford Motor Co. is due to announce its new expansion plans on the 2nd of May. According to a statement released by the American carmaker, the company will invest more than $1 billion to implement its expansion plans. The company is to create approximately 2,000 new job position at its Claycomo car plant, aiming to significantly boost production of its popular F-150 pickup trucks as it wants to earn from the strong upward trend in this segment of the market and win a bigger market share as well. The company plans to reemploy about 1000 of workers who lost their jobs earlier because of reductions. Yet the company plans to reduce the work-week hours as soon as third team starts work at the car plant.

Joe Hinrichs, Ford Motor executive vice president and president of The Americas, underlined in the statement: "Customer demand for today's F-150 is strong and continues growing, the truck segment is growing three times faster than the overall industry," adding that the positive trend was driven by the economic recovery in the United States.

New expansion plans are in line with the Ford Motor Co.'s pledge to add 12,000 hourly jobs in the United States by 2015. And it seems that the promise made to the United Auto Workers has been almost fulfilled with these new jobs at Claycomo car plant as the carmaker will have to add only 3,000 more, but it has time.

Rumblings of Ford Motor Co.'s expansion plans come as the industry has been enjoying strong demand for pickup trucks.

Ford seizes the opportunity

The fact is that Ford Motor Co. wants to seize the opportunity as pickup truck market has finally got its skates on. According to the latest report by the Dearborn-based carmaker, strong US truck sales were recorded by the company. The detailed findings indicated that sales of Ford's F-series pickups climbed staggering 24 percent to nearly 60,000 in April on a year-on-year basis. But also other carmakers, including General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC, witnessed sharp increases in truck sales in April.

Without a doubt, the better situation in the US housing market is a significant driver of increasing demand for pickup trucks. And it seems that pickup trucks are a mover of US carmakers, indicating that not only the auto industry is slowly waking up out of its torpidity, but that the US is witnessing improvements in its economy. US carmakers are rubbing their hands as the market is improving.

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