Ford plant in Mexico turns into a 'cemetery'

The loss to the economy, could run into the hundreds of millions of dollars

Ford Motor’s abrupt move to scrap a planned $1.6 billion car plant in central Mexico has spooked a network of suppliers who bet on a growing customer base and dramatised the risk that Donald Trump’s agenda poses to the country’s broader economy.

Many auto parts makers had started to expand in anticipation of Ford's plant in the state of San Luis Potosi, where industry is “easily 70 per cent” dependent on the auto sector, said Julian Eaves, managing director of Preferred Compounding de Mexico, a US-owned maker of rubber compounds operating here.

The loss to the economy, Eaves calculates, could run into