Ford news items

"What we will be doing over the next three years is working very aggressively to find additional opportunities for those employees and we'll see how that pans out," he said.

"One of the benefits of announcing something so far in advance like this is that it does give us quite a bit of time to work with out employees that we have a great relationship with and try to find as many opportunities as we can for our people."

Victorian Premier Steve Bracks says the Geelong area is experiencing jobs growth and he hopes those affected will be able to find work elsewhere.

"We will have a combined fund, which will be contributed to by the Federal, the State Government and by Ford Australia, into investment and innovation in Geelong, to seek to have further investment and further opportunities for job growth in the future," he said.

The Federal Government is fending off claims it failed to do enough to prevent the closure of the plant.

Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) national secretary Dave Oliver says the Government should have done more to make the industry competitive.

"Instead of palliative care we would have liked to have seen the Government intervene to save the jobs in the first place," he said.

Federal Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane says that is not the case.

"We have made a significant contribution to the car industry in Australia," he said.

"As a Government we've allocated some $7.3 billion."

Federal Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd says he will support any assistance package for the Geelong community.

"Anything which assists the Geelong community of course we would support on a bipartisan basis, but my concern is not just a package for measures for the Geelong community after the closure of this plant," he said.

"My concern is for the long-term viability of the Australian automobile industry.

"That's why we have a half-billion-dollar fund proposal on the table."

news story Australia Day 26 January 2007

Ford creates History with record losses

By Tom Krisher Associated press

DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. could post the worst annual loss in its storied 103-year history when it releases its 2006 earnings today.

The old record net loss was US$7.39 billion in 1992, but through three quarters of last year, Ford already had lost $7 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expect more red ink in the fourth quarter, predicting an average quarterly loss of $1.01 a share and $1.35 a share for the year, excluding special items.

"The fourth quarter's going to look real ugly," said Erich Merkle, director of forecasting for the auto consulting company IRN Inc. in Grand Merkle predicted Ford would get as much bad news out of the way as it can for the end of 2006, beating the 1992 record.

"Let's just air all our dirty laundry all at once. Take the medicine and then we can move on. I definitely think that's their philosophy, knowing it's going to be real poor," Merkle said.

Burnham Securities analyst David Healy said in a note to investors that Ford has yet to recover from its finances being wrecked by collapsing sales of its F-series pickup trucks and truck-based sport utility vehicles.

The company made a profit of $1.44 billion in 2005, and in the fourth quarter of that year it produced and shipped 355,000 of the high-profit large and mid-sized truck models, Healy said. That dropped to 213,000 in the final quarter of last year, he said.

"In our view, most of the year-to-year increase in losses lies in the 142,000 year-to-year decline in these high-profit models," Healy said.

Production of other Ford models dropped by 53,000 in the fourth quarter of last year compared to the last quarter of 2005, driven by dealer stock reductions and the company's strategy to reduce traditional low-profit sales to rental car companies, Healy said.

Efraim Levy, senior industry analyst for Standard & Poor's, predicted Ford would post a $2-billion net loss for the last quarter of 2006.

Like other analysts, he sees bottom-line improvement in 2007 even though he predicts revenues will drop by seven per cent compared to 2006. He still sees a loss for this year, but said the improvement will come as Ford becomes more efficient and cuts costs by slicing its workforces.

About 38,000 hourly workers have signed up for buyout or early retirement offers from the company, and Ford plans to cut its white-collar workforce by 14,000 with buyouts and early retirements.

The company has mortgaged its assets to borrow up to $23.4 billion to fund a massive restructuring plan and cover billions in losses expected until 2009. It expects to burn up $17 billion in cash during the next two years before returning to profitability.

Ford has rolled out or will introduce several new or updated products in 2007, including the Edge crossover, new F-series Super Duty pickups, a redesigned Focus small car and an updated Five Hundred larger sedan. But Levy said the company's new vehicles won't be strong enough for it to recover much this year.

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