RIO DE JANEIRO – U.S. automaker Ford on Friday announced plans to invest 4 billion reais ($2.3 billion) through 2015 to expand two factories in Brazil.

Close to $1.6 billion will be spend on increasing the production capacity of the state-of-the-art Camaçari complex in the northeastern state of Bahia, Ford’s biggest and most modern plant in Brazil.

Output capacity at the factory, where the announcement was made in a ceremony attended by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, will increase from 250,000 to 300,000 vehicles per year, Ford’s president for Brazil and the Mercosur region, Marcos Oliveira, told a press conference.

Another 1,000 workers will be added to the current staff of 8,500 at that factory, where Ford makes its Fiesta sub-compact and EcoSport SUV models.

Camaçari has operated at full capacity since 2004, three years after the plant was inaugurated, with three around-the-clock shifts. According to the company’s estimates, one vehicle is churned out every 80 seconds.

Another $690 million will be spent on modernizing Ford’s Troller plant in the northeastern state of Ceara.

Between January and September, Ford churned out 250,626 vehicles in Brazil, according to figures from the National Association of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, or Anfavea.

Ford ranks fourth in terms of auto sales in Brazil, behind Fiat, Volkswagen and General Motors, with a 10 percent market share, according to Anfavea figures.

During the first nine months of the year, Ford Brazil sold 263,925 units inside the giant South American country and exported 39,007 vehicles to markets in the region such as Argentina, Venezuela, Chile and Mexico.

Despite the global economic crisis, auto sales have been robust this year in Brazil due to tax incentives and low interest rates. EFE