Posted on Thursday, January 12, 2006 - 2:16 pm:

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Visteon hopes to shift half its engineering operations to low-cost countries by 2008, a move that could cost hundreds of American engineers their jobs. Visteon has 3,600 engineers worldwide. Of those, 70 percent are in what Visteon considers high-cost countries, including more than 1,500 in North America. Stebbins said he wants to have 48 percent of his engineers in low-cost countries by 2008.

By shifting the bulk of the company's work force to low-wage countries, Visteon hopes to become profitable. Visteon has yet to post an annual profit.

All Visteon factories in Michigan were transferred back to Ford or the Ford-run holding company, with the exception of a joint-venture facility in Benton Harbor in which Visteon has a minority stake. However, the company's large and increasingly vacant global headquarters remains in Van Buren Township.

Visteon spokesman Jim Fisher said the company has no plans to close the $300 million campus, which opened just months before the deal with Ford was announced. "Our plan is to utilize this facility with Visteon employees as fully as possible," Fisher said, but wouldn't provide employee numbers.

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