Ford not to seek federal loans after heavy quarterly loss
CHICAGO, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) — Ford Motor Company on Thursday reported a fourth quarter net loss of 5.9 billion U.S. dollars, compared with a loss of 2.8 billion dollars in the same period of 2007.
Ford Motor Co. Chief Executive and President Alan Mulally (L), Executive Chairman Bill Ford (2nd L), President of the Americas Mark Fields and Group Vice President of Product Development Derrick Kuzak (R) pose next to the 2010 Taurus sedan during press days at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan, Jan. 11, 2009. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
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”Ford and the entire auto industry faced an extraordinary slowdown in all major global markets in the fourth quarter that clearly had an impact on our results,” said Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally in a statement.
The second-biggest U.S. automaker posted a total loss of 14.6 billion dollars in 2008.
Based on current planning assumptions, Ford reiterated it has sufficient liquidity to fund its business plan and product investments. Ford said it finished 2008 with 24 billion dollars inavailable Automotive liquidity, including 13.4 billion dollars in Automotive gross cash.
Ford’s fourth quarter revenue plunged to 29.2 billion dollars from 45.5 billion dollars a year ago as the economic woes pared the company’s U.S. sales by 30 percent.
But the company reconfirmed that, based on current planning assumptions, it does not need a bridge loan from the U.S. government, barring a significantly deeper economic downturn or a significant industry event, such as the bankruptcy of a major competitor that causes disruption to the company’s supply base, dealers or creditors.
GM and Chrysler had asked for and received low-interest loans from the federal government to keep themselves afloat.
Also on Thursday, Ford said the United Auto Workers union has agreed to end the “jobs bank” at Ford, known as the Job Security program. The company and the union presently are working out the details of implementation.
Detroit auto show opens amid economic woes
Detroit, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) — The North American International Auto Show (NAIAS), one of world’s most prestigious of its kind, opens Sunday in Detroit as a deepened economic recession inflicts deep woes on automakers worldwide and overshadows a possible recovery of U.S. ailing auto industry in the near future.
The absence of some big names from the show, including Nissan, Suzuki, Mitsubishi, Ferrari, Land Rover, Rolls-Royce and Porsche, serves as a reminder what a trying time the automakers have to endure. The missing companies pull out of the event to save cash in order to outlast the economic slump.
U.S. auto bailout draft bill drops labor targets
BEIJING, Jan. 11 — Legislation proposed to tighten the sweeping U.S. corporate bailout program has omitted specific targets for labor concessions that were a key feature of last month’s Bush administration rescue of distressed auto makers.
A portion of the bill proposed by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank on Friday sought to codify the auto bailout with terms that, with two exceptions, basically mirror those imposed by the White House when it extended 17.4 billion U.S. dollars in emergency loans to General Motors and Chrysler.
Auto sales in U.S. fall dramatically in 2008
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) — Auto sales in the United States fell in 2008, with a total of 13.2 million cars and light trucks sold, down from 16.1 million in 2007, it was reported on Tuesday.
The year of 2008 was the worst year for auto sales since 1992 when there were 70 million fewer Americans, the Los Angeles Times said. Full story
U.S. auto makers receiving government loan
General Motors vehicles are seen at a car dealership in Toronto Dec. 12, 2008. General Motors Corp. major auto maker in the U.S., collected a loan of 4 billion dollars from the U.S. Treasury Department on the eve of the new year, reports from Detroit said Thursday. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
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CHICAGO, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) — General Motors Corp. major auto maker in the U.S., collected a loan of 4 billion dollars from the U.S. Treasury Department on the eve of the new year, reports from Detroit said Thursday.
The cash infusion will prevent the automaker’s imminent financial collapse after a dramatic sales decline and cash crunch this year.
White House unveils mulit-billion-dollar loans to bail out auto industry
WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) — The White House announced on Friday a rescue plan of multi-billion dollars in emergency loans to bail out the country’s crippled auto industry from bankruptcy.
President George W. Bush made the announcement a week after Senate Republicans blocked a 14 billion dollars legislation to aid the automakers that had been negotiated by the White House and Congressional Democrats.
Global auto bailout, a risky game?
NEW YORK, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) — When the White House finally handed out to the Detroit carmakers a long-awaited lifeline last Friday, it seemed to have triggered or at least fueled a wave of auto industry bailouts around the world.
While many cheer the move as a timely rescue for the victims of global economic recession, many others have raised the acute question: Will this really work or will it make things even worse?
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