Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Ford Motor Co. plans temporary shutdowns at 9 North American plants this quarter as it slashes production after an 18 percent drop in U.S. sales this year.

Vehicle-assembly factories in Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Missouri, Kentucky, Ontario and Mexico will be affected, Angie Kozleski, a spokeswoman for the Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker, said today in an interview. The facilities have about 23,000 production workers, according to Ford's Web site.

Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally is reducing production to match plummeting demand for cars and light trucks, including Ford declines of 30 percent last month and 35 percent in September. The second-largest U.S. automaker said on Nov. 7 that it would trim North American output this quarter by 211,000 vehicles, or 33 percent, from a year earlier.

``Ford is taking the right steps in terms of cutting inventory and cutting production,'' said Dennis Virag, president of Automotive Consulting Group in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The company's Louisville, Kentucky, factory that builds Explorer sport-utility vehicles and St. Paul, Minnesota, plant that makes Ranger small pickup trucks are slated to close for all of the December, the longest of the shutdowns.

Plants in Oakville and St. Thomas, Ontario, and Kansas City, Missouri, will be idled for a total of three weeks during this month and December, and a factory in Avon Lake, Ohio, will close for two weeks. One-week shutdowns are planned at facilities in Flat Rock, Michigan; Hermosillo, Mexico; and Wayne, Michigan.

The factories where output is being reduced also make models such as the Mustang sports car, Econoline vans, Edge and Flex wagons, Lincoln Town Car, Escape and Mariner small SUVs and Fusion sedan.

Model Changes

In addition to the production-related shutdowns, another truck factory in Louisville will be idled from mid-December until early next year to add large SUVs, and another plant in Wayne will temporarily close at the end of this month to be retooled to make small cars, starting in 2010, Kozleski said.

Ford rose 4 cents to $1.84 at 4:01 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have fallen 73 percent this year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bill Koenig in Southfield, Michigan at wkoenig@bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: November 12, 2008 16:05 EST