Ford loses nearly $1 billion for the year
Jan 22, 2003 12:00 PM
Ford Motor Company said it lost $980 million in 2002 on revenues of $162.2 billion, resulting from plant closing charges and other cost-cutting measures. However, that's an improvement from the $5.45 billion it lost in 2001 on revenues of $160.8 billion. Ford added that total vehicle unit sales dropped last year to 6,980,000 vehicles, down slightly from 7,008,000 units in 2001. "In the first year of our turnaround, Ford improved its operating results by about $1.7 billion," said chairman & CEO Bill Ford. "We are on track to reach our mid-decade target of an annual $7 billion pre-tax operating profit." Dearborn, MI-based Ford noted that it plans to introduce a wide variety of new models this year -- including several new trucks. It plans to introduce an all-new F-150 pickup truck with five differentiated series, along with new minivans for the Ford and Mercury brands in North America and a new commercial truck package called the Ford Transit Connect. Ford is estimating that industry demand will be about 16.5=million vehicles in the U.S. Its North American production plans call for producing 1,035,000 cars and trucks in the first quarter, up 25,000 units from production plans released earlier this month.
