Ford Cheers Detroit with Export and Football
Ford Field has been a source of excitement for Detroit recently as the city's NFL football team, the Lions just made it to the playoffs for the first time in 12 years.
But the name Ford has more to offer Detroit than football.
Ford, the automotive company, seems to be making strong decisions lately, including exporting cars made in Detroit to South Korea.
The American auto industry has certainly had some rough years recently. Detroit, the Motor City itself, has seen many, many rough years. © Olivér Svéd | Dreamstime.com
Yet the people of Detroit are tough and hard working. They've held on through years of economic downturn. However, 2012 could be a year to bring new glimmers of hope to go along with their travails. Their beloved, but for many years embarrassingly bad, Lions are rising to be among the top teams in the NFL. More important are possibilities for Detroit's economy.
Detroit's, and much of Michigan's, economy has risen and fallen on the tides of the American automotive industry. Growing up in Michigan, I was one of very few who didn't really know that much about cars. But one thing I did know... You don't drive an imported car. That was treason punishable by getting keyed, having your tires slashed, or even being towed.
As GM and Ford struggled through the years and moved jobs out of Michigan, driving a car imported from a manufacturer of another country became less and less a treasonous act. Still, Detroit has never fully lost its pride in being a city where cars are made.
A piece of that pride could be felt in the Chrysler Super Bowl commercial of last year which featured Eminem and ended with the tag, "Imported from Detroit."
While Chrysler ended strong in the fourth quarter of 2011 and seems to be carrying that momentum into 2012, so does Ford. It's Ford's exporting cars from Detroit to Korea that was featured in a blog from the Port of Portland.
Not only are Ford's car export operations good news for Detroit, they're good for creating jobs for dockworkers in Portland loading the cars for RORO shipping and others in transportation and shipping.
It is looking good for Ford to continue exporting vehicles from Detroit based on the strength of their last few years.
There is good reason to hope in Detroit. A recent Detroit Free Press article quotes Rod Lache of Deutsche Bank as saying, "Ford has potential to be one of the strongest individual stock performers in '12."
Maybe we're only a year away from seeing serious economic growth in Detroit and its team's first ever Super Bowl championship.