AUSTRALIAN EXPANSION

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30277, 1 November 1963, Page 11

AUSTRALIAN EXPANSION

TIE industrial pace has quickened in Australia, with an estimated 7 per cent gross national product increase for 1962, and in the vanguard of accelerating growth are the Australian motor companies. The latest to announce a major expansion programme is the Ford Motor Company of Australia, which will spend another £I3J million on its Australian plants, beginning immediately. Just a few weeks ago even bigger programmes were announced by Chrysler Corporation and General MotorsHoldens, Ltd. Chrysler said it would invest more than £3l million to expand its South Australian facilities over 10 years. General MotorsHolden revealed a £154 million new plant project which will lifts its current nationwide expansion expenditure ito £33,250,000. In Sydney the British Motor Corporation is I extending its plant at Victoria Park at a cost of £1 I million. Ford Goins

Ford has gained on G.M.-H. recently and the new programme will raise its carmaking capacity considerably. When it is completed in two

years, Ford will be able to produce 440 Falcons and Cortinas a day on an eight-hour shift, while still maintaining the output of other passenger cars and commercial vehicles. The manufacture of the Cortina will be a new step for Ford in Australia. The Ford expansion is the third in five years, a period which has seen a remarkable growth at home and abroad of the Australian automotive industry. Australian cars and spare parts are now sold in nearly 50 countries around the world, with trial shipments of spare parts now successfully competing on the internal United States market Many Cars With a total of three million vehicles, Australia has an average of one to every 3.5 persons, a proportion bettered only by the United States, Canada, and New Zealand.

By 1970 most authorities predict there will be five million vehicles on Australian roads, one to every 2.5 persons. The growth that has caused Ford to invest £54 million since 1958 is expected to ensure a handsome return for the company.