Record losses for US automaker Ford

Ford lost $5.8 billion in the last three months of 2006 alone, mainly as a result of downsizing costs and the continuing fall in sales of its sport utility vehicles and light trucks, which have been hard hit by high gas prices. Ford’s losses were equal to $4,700 per vehicle, according to analysts, about the same as it made in profits on each of its big-sized vehicles earlier in the decade, when it controlled 25 percent of the US market.

Ford’s share of the US market fell to 17.5 percent in 2006, and it is predicted that the company—long the number-two auto company in the US—would soon fall to fourth place behind General Motors, Toyota and Chrysler, with about 14 percent of the share of cars and trucks sold in 2009.

Facing a financial meltdown last November, Ford put its factories, headquarters and other assets, including its blue oval trademark, up as collateral to secure $25 billion in loans to fund its restructuring. The company’s stock price is hovering around $8 a share, roughly the same as Chrysler’s when the company faced bankruptcy in 1979-80.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2007/jan2007/ford-j31.shtml