No news is bad news for Ford's local factories Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally poses with a new Ford EcoSport at the Bangkok Motor Show on Tuesday. Mr Mulally told reporters Thailand would remain the main factory source for the Asia-Pacific. Ford cars on display at the New York International Auto Show overnight. Picture: AP Photo/Richard Drew Source: AP Top Ford executives have again refused to give any hopeful signs for the company's struggling Broadmeadows and Geelong factories. Picture: Derrick Den Hollander Source: HWT Image Library THE future of Ford Australias manufacturing operations at Broadmeadows and Geelong remains in doubt beyond 2016. At the New York motor show overnight senior Ford executives again refused to reveal any signs of hope for the struggling car maker. Last year saw the lowest output at the Broadmeadows vehicle assembly line and the Geelong engine factory since they opened in 1960 - in an all-time record new-car market. News Limited understands Ford Australia is yet to apply for government funding for a manufacturing project beyond the current plan which will see the Falcon sedan and Territory SUV phased out due to stricter emissions regulations in 2016. Vehicle manufacturers typically apply for government grants at least five years out from a new model because of the lead times involved in design, development, engineering and factory tooling. Holden finalised government funding assistance 18 months ago to guarantee its manufacturing operations to 2022, while Toyota has just opened an engine plant to take it well into the next decade and is currently negotiating assistance for the next Camry that would run from 2018 to 2024. The executive vice president of global marketing and sales for the Ford Motor Company, Jim Farley, told News Limited overnight: "We're very excited about our program in place to 2016 [but] we have nothing to announce today beyond 2016." Ford will introduce facelifted versions of the Falcon sedan and Territory SUV early next year, both of which are the result of earlier government assistance programs. But when asked why Ford Australia had not submitted a proposal to Federal and State Governments that would take manufacturing beyond 2016, Mr Farley repeated his earlier comment: "There is nothing to announce today about Broadmeadows or anything beyond 2016." Ford's Geelong engine plant has already had one stay of execution. Ford Australia announced in July 2007 that the Geelong engine factory would shut down because the six-cylinder motor didn't meet impending emissions regulations. But in November 2008 the company announced a $21 million rescue package to upgrade it to meet regulations that run from 2010 to 2016. Earlier this week the CEO of Ford Alan Mulally told reporters Thailand would remain the primary factory source in the Asia-Pacific region. Ford's production lines in Thailand produce 450,000 vehicles a year; last year Broadmeadows built just 37,000 vehicles. Ford Australia announced in 2007 it was to build the Focus small car in Broadmeadows to boost output and improve economies of scale. But Ford's senior Detroit-based executives decided to switch production to Thailand, where labour costs are lower and where a Free Trade Agreement makes the vehicle cheaper to import than build locally. In what could amount to a further blow to Broadmeadows, Ford's global bosses say they are considering establishing a production facility in Indonesia, where Nissan, Toyota and others are already based - and where labour costs are even lower than they are in Thailand. Matt Bradley, president of Ford for the ASEAN region, told the Reuters news agency Thailand was Ford's primary manufacturing "hub" for the Asia-Pacific, but "clearly we're going to continue to look at and study Indonesia." Meanwhile Ford expects one third of its global profits to come from the Asia-Pacific region by 2020. When asked about Ford Australia's contribution to the company's profitability globally, Mr Farley told News Limited: "I can't go into specifics about our profitability." But chances are Ford's Australian manufacturing operations are holding the company back. It has slipped to sixth place behind Toyota, Mazda, Nissan, Holden and Hyundai in the 2013 sales race after seven straight years of decline. Despite $102 million of state and federal government support, Ford Australia recorded its biggest financial loss in decades - and possibly the largest in its history - in its most recent reporting period. Figures for 2011 show Ford Australia made a $78 million operating loss and a one-off "tax impairment and accounting adjustment" of $212 million for a total loss of $290 million. The previous worst result on record was in 2008 when the company reported a loss of $274 million; it posted modest profits of $13 million in 2009 and $26 million in 2010.