Ford Motor Co. is lowering its projections for its global market share for 2006 amidst stiff competition from other automakers with newly-launched models in the full-size truck and sport utility vehicle segments as well as the continued rise in fuel prices. Earlier, the automaker had projected that its market share for the year will either be flat or improved slightly.
The company also said that it will shut down seven plants in North America between 2010 and 2012, still in line with its restructuring plan called ‘Way Forward’. Ford filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission although there were no specific market share figures divulged. Last year, Ford’s market share in the U.S. slipped further to 18.2% from 19.3% in 2004. Ford’s Way Forward plan aims to curb this downward trend.
Meanwhile, there’s more bad news for the Blue Oval company which seems to be having a slower advance than expected into its ‘Way Forward’ plan. Sales in the US continue to decline, with a 3.9% drop in the first quarter of this year, led by a 9% drop in SUV and Pickup sales, traditionally Ford’s areas of strength. The Ford Expedition and Navigator are currently experiencing a sharp decline in demand.
Because of this, JP Morgan auto analyst Himanshu Patel is predicting a loss of up to $2.5 billion in North America for 2006. The company needs stronger performance in the SUV and truck segments to equalize the other segments. However, Ford CEO Bill Ford says that it is still too soon into the turnaround process to see any transformation.
May 12th, 2006 at 9:10 am
Will General Motors and Ford merge? It almost happened once, in 1908,
when J.P. Morgan tried to put together a deal between four major car
makers: Ford, Buick, Olds, and Briscoe-Maxwell. The secret meeting
between the heads of those companies is retold in an excerpt from the
new book, “Billy, Alfred, and General Motors,” published by AMACOM, at
http://tinyurl.com/nqf2x
What’s amazing is that all the parties agreed to the merger — even
Henry Ford. It looked like a done deal, then suddenly fell apart. The
reasons are complex, involving the psychology of self-made men vs.
schooled managers, distributed vs. central control, and inventors vs.
the financiers they hate but can’t grow without.
The book is written by National Book Award nominee William Pelfrey. A
veteran freelance journalist and GM insider, Pelfrey recreates the
events of that day using obscure newspaper accounts, personal
letters, and other previously unpublished documents.