Ford Motor Co on Wednesday posted a lower operating fourth-quarter profit as losses in every global region except North America weighed on results.
The No. 2 US automaker, which has announced an alliance with Germany’s Volkswagen AG (VW), is restructuring operations globally. It is making cuts in Europe, looking to reorganize its South American operations and turn around China — all unprofitable regions.
“It was not a year we were happy with and the fourth quarter continued that theme,” chief financial officer Bob Shanks told reporters at the company’s headquarters outside Detroit.
He acknowledged the potential for such disruptions as strikes this year in regions it is restructuring.
Last week, Ford provided a cloudier outlook for this year due to tariff costs and uncertainty over Britain’s exit from the EU, only saying it had the potential for higher earnings and revenue.
That was in contrast to Ford’s larger US rival General Motors Co, which on Jan. 11 forecast higher earnings for this year that far surpassed analysts’ estimates.
Ford’s market-leading presence in Britain means it is extensively exposed to the effects of Brexit, Shanks said.
Ford said on Jan. 10 that it would cut thousands of jobs and look at plant closures in Europe as part of its plan to return to profit in the region.
Ford posted a fourth-quarter net loss of US$116 million, or US$0.03 a share, down from a net profit of US$2.5 billion, or US$0.63 a share, in the same quarter in 2017, largely due to one-time pension costs and other charges.
Excluding one-time charges, it earned US$0.30 a share, in line with an outlook Ford executives provided last week that was shy of Wall Street’s expectations.
In North America, Ford posted a pre-tax profit of US$2 billion. In every other region it saw losses, with Asia reporting the largest loss of US$381 million, driven by plummeting sales in China.
On Jan. 15, Ford and VW said they would join forces on commercial vehicles and were exploring joint development of electric and self-driving technology.
On Wednesday, sources said that Germany’s automakers, including VW, were in talks to jointly develop autonomous cars.
VW said it was still looking for new partners, while Shanks said the companies were still in talks to close a deal.
Ford, which ended last year with US$23.1 billion in cash, previously said it remained committed to its operations in Europe and South America, and its losses in China would narrow this year.
Ford shares rose about 1 percent to US$8.40 in extended trading.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last