Tight supply of the new Ford Ranger bakkie was almost a thing of the past, promised Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa’s (FMCSA) president and CEO Jeff Nemeth on Monday.

Speaking at a breakfast hosted by Ford in Johannesburg, he said FMCSA’s Silverton plant had been experiencing challenges supplying the pick-up to its almost 150 global customer markets.

Nemeth said FMCSA’s supply chains were particularly long, as South Africa was quite some distance away from component suppliers in Thailand, for example. Other Ranger production sites were located closer to their suppliers, resulting in shorter, more flexible supply chains.

Nemeth noted that FMCSA “had difficulty” in bringing in all of the parts for the Ranger from all over the world, despite the 70% local content on the vehicle. However, the company had now moved to have more parts more readily available to the Silverton plant.

The South African component supplier base had also struggled to triple their supply for the new Ranger model compared with the previous Ranger.

“The local supply base is now supplying us as expected. Everyone had growing pains last year,” said Nemeth.

Another challenge was that Ford globally allowed dealers to make last-minute amendments to orders placed at plants.

“We have now limited dealers’ ability to amend their orders close to production,” said Nemeth.

“We believe these [actions] will stabilise production here in South Africa.”

FMCSA marketing, sales and service VP Dean Stoneley said the company sold 49 224 vehicles in South Africa last year, with ten months of the new Ford Ranger contributing 15 100 units to this number, giving it a record 17.3% one-ton bakkie market share.

The previous record in terms of Ranger sales was a 12.7% share in 2005, with FMCSA now aiming to clinch a more than 20% slice of the one-ton market this year.

FMCSA sold 1 255 new Rangers in South Africa in January and exported 1 449 units.