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Vehicles on the assembly line at Ford Motor Co. of Canada’s Oakville, Ont., assembly plant.FRED LUM/The Globe and Mail

Ford Motor Co. will add 400 new jobs in Oakville, Ont., to assemble the redesigned Ford Edge crossover vehicle for global markets in another sign that healthy vehicle sales are boosting the auto sector in Canada.

The announcement will be made Thursday at the Ford Motor Co. of Canada Ltd. plant where official production of the new version of the Edge is scheduled to begin.

The hiring is in addition to the 1,000 jobs added last year and takes employment at the plant to 4,500 people. About half of the 1,000 jobs added last fall were insourced from suppliers.

"The all-new Ford Edge is a true global vehicle," said Joe Hinrichs, the auto maker's president of the Americas. Ford will make right-hand drive and diesel versions of the mid-sized Edge and it will be shipped to Western Europe for the first time.

The announcement of new Ford jobs comes two weeks after General Motors Co. said its Cami Automotive factory in Ingersoll, Ont., will build the next generation of the Chevrolet Equinox compact crossover and on the heels of a Honda Motor Co. Ltd. announcement that it will spend $857-million at its plant in Alliston, Ont., to build the redesigned Honda Civic.

The Ontario and federal governments have spent about $140-million to support Ford's $700-million investment in Oakville. GM and suppliers will spend about $560-million to retool the Ingersoll plant.

Mandates given to Canadian plants to produce vehicles for global markets – such as the Edge and its Lincoln cousin, the MKX – are victories in the race for auto investment because they prolong the lives of factories for eight to 10 years. Industry officials have said that if Canada wants to continue to be a global player in auto assembly, it must retain existing assembly plants amid a flood of investment in new plants that is flowing into Mexico.

"This is an encouraging sign," said Don Walker, chief executive officer of Magna International Inc., and chairman of the Canadian Automotive Partnership Council, a joint industry-union board that advises the federal, Ontario and Quebec governments on automotive issues.

The announcements are good for Magna, Mr. Walker noted, because the company produces components for the Ford Edge and the Chevrolet Equinox.

"From a Canadian hat, we're creating employment, which is revenue for the government and it's good for the industry," he said in an interview Wednesday. The decisions likely are not related to the recent fall in the value of the Canadian dollar, he said, but the 80-cent (U.S.) level of the currency makes manufacturing in this country more competitive.

The upgrade to the Oakville plant – which includes the addition of 250 new robots and upgrading of another 1,000 – will allow Ford to shift production quickly and efficiently to meet consumer demand, the company said.

Global demand for crossovers and sport utility vehicles has risen 88 per cent since 2008. It's one of the hottest segments in North America, to the extent that crossovers replaced compact cars last month as the biggest segment in the Canadian market.

In Europe, where utilities have taken longer to break the stranglehold held on the market by passenger cars, Ford said the segment has more than doubled to 21 per cent of the market in six years.

Overall vehicle sales are expected to hit a record high in Canada again this year and top 17 million in the U.S. market, which is the biggest market for the Edge and where it has been the best-selling five-passenger crossover for seven of the last eight years.

Global vehicle sales are expected to approach 90 million this year.

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Study and track financial data on any traded entity: click to open the full quote page. Data updated as of 28/03/24 4:00pm EDT.

SymbolName% changeLast
F-N
Ford Motor Company
+1.68%13.28
GM-N
General Motors Company
+1.7%45.35
HMC-N
Honda Motor Company ADR
-0.24%37.23
MG-N
Mistras Group Inc
-0.52%9.56
MG-T
Magna International Inc
-0.27%73.79
MGA-N
Magna International
-0.11%54.48
MGA-T
Mega Uranium Ltd
-8%0.345

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