Eight is Enough: Ford expected to report eighth straight quarterly loss
Today Ford will report its second quarter earnings for 2007, and analysts expect the Blue Oval to ink another losing quarter in the books for the eighth time in a row. The No. 2 automaker in the U.S., for now, lost $282 million in Q1, and analysts expect Ford's aggressive use of incentives to sell cars, as well as the ever rising cost of materials, to again hurt the bottom line to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.There's a silver lining on Ford's dark cloud, however, in that its poor performance is likely to grease the wheels of the United Auto Workers, which is currently in landmark talks with each of the Big 3 domestic automakers over new contracts. Booking an eighth quarterly loss in a row should make crystal clear the fact that concessions are required by the UAW if Ford is to have any shot at avoiding a ninth.
[Source: Reuters]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Biff Baxter All American 9:03AM (7/26/2007)
Wow.
This is a stunning turnaround. $1 Billion in one quarter is nothing but impressive even in light of NA's numbers.
I'm sure that Gettlefinger and the union crowd will use this as the excuse for demanding more.
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George 9:05AM (7/26/2007)
Huh?
Ford Motor Co. surprised Wall Street Thursday with second-quarter earnings of $750 million, its first profitable quarter in two years.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070726/earns_ford.html?.v=10
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Bill 9:16AM (7/26/2007)
I just heard on NPR they turned a profit?
Autoblog really needs some better editorial discretion. It's partly Reuters fault too, they seem to have a way or reporting the opposite of the truth.
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Rob 9:11AM (7/26/2007)
Kinda suprising when I read an article on CNN this morning saying the exact opposite.
http://money.cnn.com/2007/07/26/news/companies/ford_earnings/index.htm?postversion=2007072608
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Rob 9:14AM (7/26/2007)
Addendum to my last post.
State clearly next time that that $282 Million figure was for the U.S. market. Overal Ford made in excess of $750 Million in the quarter.
Greg A. 10:54AM (7/26/2007)
"State clearly next time that that $282 Million figure was for the U.S. market."
I don't know if it was for the North American operations, but it does say it was for Q1, not for the just announced Q2. (Of course, since this Autoblog entry also predicted — if you can call it a prediction; it was posted after Ford announced the results — Ford was going to post a loss, you may want to take that number with a grain of salt.)
Nick 9:16AM (7/26/2007)
Way to take a few minutes and check the web before posting an entry, autoblog. Their actual, POSITIVE, results have only been available for like the past 3.5 hours.
This story is about 24 hours too late.
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Just me 9:20AM (7/26/2007)
LOL,
I have only heard it on the radio and read it on the web for the last 3 hours, and along comes autoflog and bucks it up.
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Jay Evans 9:36AM (7/26/2007)
"The $279 million loss in North America is still a problem," Tynan said.
Unless they can turn the US around at some point they will have to shut it down.
Just think, "Ford" as an foreign import car-maker. Mind boggling isn't it.
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Mattias 9:41AM (7/26/2007)
Why not? They have great cars in Australia and Europe. They have factories in South America where they could produce the Australian and European models. So they could do the same as Nissan or Volkswagen and go "import only". It might even make sense for Ford.
And you would get the Falcon, the new Ranger, the Euro Focus, the Mondeo, the S-Max, the Fiat 500 based Ka...
Compy386 9:43AM (7/26/2007)
That's not really true. I'll agree to the fact that Ford needs to turn North America around, but technically profits are profits and if Ford can make enough money elsewhere, then it'll continue to operate. Would be strange though if Ford chooses to shut down NA operations and continue elsewhere.
Julius 9:44AM (7/26/2007)
Jay,
Based on Ford's restructuring plan, many of their vehicles will be made on global platforms and could be produced anywhere in the world. If the the EU-USD conversion rate continues favoring the Euro, it would pay off to produce European vehicles in the US and ship them over seas.
Good for Ford, this is a great result.
Greg A. 10:48AM (7/26/2007)
"'The $279 million loss in North America is still a problem,' Tynan said."
I don't know whether or not you're trying to back up what John Neff wrote, but he doesn't differentiate between North American operations and the entire company in his Autoblog entry.
Julius 9:46AM (7/26/2007)
Also, a another shout out for the poor journalism. if you're going to have the tag line, "obsessively covering the auto industry," you should know that Ford reported earnings at 7AM EST, and that they reported a profit.
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Tyk 9:50AM (7/26/2007)
Their only solution for profitability in the NA market is to build more cars in Mexico and import them.. im serious.
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Zacarious 10:07AM (7/26/2007)
autoblog - voted the best automotive blog is 2007, readers rejoice!
wait a second ... think that was jalopnik ... sorry about that
Hamud 10:03AM (7/26/2007)
Only Ford NA posted loss, the rest of the units around the world had profit. Loss was $279 millions for Ford NA, but compared to $716 million of loss in the same period of 2006 it's a gain so to speak...
Ford release: http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=26364
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Zacarious 10:09AM (7/26/2007)
and was "in" 2007 not is 2007
oh and wait it was actually TTAC that won
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Max 10:47AM (7/26/2007)
"Ford has driven a lot of the costs out of the system already and it's still not profitable," Tynan said. "It really does get more difficult from here. The easy costs are already out. Now, if you need more cost-reduction, especially in North America, where do you get them?"
Good job Mulally in doing what should have been done years ago. Now its up to the UAW to help out with the entitlements.
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Johnie 10:22AM (7/26/2007)
Maybe if they actually brought the decent cars from outside of North America to North America they they wouldn't be such big losers here.
Idiots!
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