OREANDA-NEWS  A woodworking company will be engaged in production at the former Ford plant in the Leningrad region, the press service of the Committee for Economic Development and Investment Activities of the region told TASS.

The site itself belongs to the manufacturer of automotive components, but he was forced to suspend the process of starting production, the press service said. The woodworking enterprise leases part of the territory and is currently engaged in debugging production. The lease agreement was concluded in 2022.

We are talking about the plant in Vsevolozhsk, where Ford Focus and Ford Mondeo models were produced until the summer of 2019. At the end of 2021, the site was transferred to a Korean manufacturer, a year later it became known that it postponed the launch of the production of automotive components for an indefinite period.

Ford announced its final withdrawal from the Russian market in the fall of 2022: the company sold a 49 percent stake in a joint venture with the Sollers automotive group to a partner. "The sale followed the complete cessation of all operations in Russia since March, including assembly, supply of components, IT and technological support," the report said. Ford Transit minibuses were going to the joint venture in Yelabuga. The production capacity of the enterprise was 85 thousand cars per year.