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Ford announced plans to stop production in India in September,
as it did not see a path to profitability there. The carmaker
expected to wind down operations at its vehicle and engine
manufacturing unit in Tamil Nadu by 2022.
"Early stage talks are going on," Thangam Thennarasu, industries
minister of Tamil Nadu told Reuters, adding that he could not
give details of which firms were interested.
"It is eventually up to Ford as it will be a commercial
arrangement. We are merely facilitating talks between the
companies," he said.
Thennarasu said the Tata Group had also shown an interest in
buying the Ford plant, having met the state's chief minister and
visited the plant for a preliminary study but the state
government had yet to hear from them about any deal.
"It is now up to them to make an official announcement,"
Thennarasu told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
Ford India will wind down operations at a second factory, in
Gujarat state, by the fourth quarter of 2021 and vehicle and
engine manufacturing in the Tamil Nadu plant by 2022, the
company said in September.
Ford has the capacity to produce about 440,000 cars in India a
year across both plants but is only using about 25% of that,
according to data intelligence company Global Data.
Ford, asked about which firms might be interested in buying the
Tamil Nadu plant, told Reuters in a statement: "We continue to
explore possible alternatives for our manufacturing facilities
but have nothing further to share."
(Reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan in Chennai)
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