quote.bloomberg.com/...le=ad_frame2_topfin&s=APPckVBWqQmlsbCBG
gekürzte Zusammenfassung auf englisch:
war gerade bei bloomberg und wird schon verschwunden sein,da aber wichtig und vermutlich Kurs beeinflussend,stell ich´s mal rein
Ford lost $800 million on first-quarter sales of $39.9 billion after earning $1.06 billion on sales of $42.5 billion in the year-earlier period. Its Ford and Lincoln-Mercury brands captured 19.7 percent of U.S. sales during the first four months of 2002-a 21-year low.
Ford is the biggest borrower in the U.S. corporate bond market, with $67.4 billion outstanding on March 31. Standard & Poor's rates its long-term debt as BBB+, the company's lowest rating since 1984. It shares, trading at $17.59 on May 30, have dropped 28 percent in a year.
John Devine, chief financial officer of General Motors Corp., says he's more concerned about competitors in Tokyo than in Detroit. ``The ones we're worried about are the ones that come in with yen-based costs,'' Devine says.
On May 30, one U.S. dollar bought 123 yen, a 16 percent increase over two years that made U.S. profits for Japanese automakers bigger when converted into yen. That helps Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co., all of which are now building or expanding U.S. truck factories.
John Casesa, a Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst, expects Ford to burn through $4.3 billion in cash this year. ``If their earnings don't improve, they'll be short of cash again by the end of 2003,'' Casesa says.
At that point, Ford could be forced to sell Hertz Corp., the biggest U.S. car rental company and its last big noncore asset, Casesa says.
The company loses $2,000 pretax on each car sold in North America and earns $1,000 on each truck, says David Healy, a Burnham Securities Inc. analyst.
Ford decided last year that future small Lincolns will be built with existing components, not designed from scratch, say people familiar with the situation. When Ford shifted the savings to the Mercury division, Reitzle erupted in anger, the people say.
Reitzle stepped down in April. He'll become CEO of Linde AG, a German industrial gas company, next year
The Merrill Lynch Basic Value Fund owned 4.2 million Ford shares on Dec. 31 and has purchased additional shares since then, says John Arege, an analyst at the fund. ``
Other investors have doubts. Chris Wiles, president of Rockhaven Asset Management LLC, questions whether Bill Ford can fix the company.
Tom Giles, chief strategist at Dean Investment Associates in Dayton, Ohio, sold all of his 509,533 Ford shares last autumn and bought Honeywell International Inc. instead. From Oct. 1 to May 30, Honeywell shares rose 45 percent to $37.84, and Ford shares rose 2 percent.
60 percent of the parts on the redesigned Expedition are brand-new, says James Padilla, head of Ford's North American operations. Japanese automakers minimize the complexity of new- vehicle launches by making sure only about 35 percent of their parts are brand-new, Padilla says.
The production system became so complicated that factory planners had trouble just keeping track of the parts.
In 2000, only 40 percent of parts for the new Expedition matched the dimensions specified in Ford's computerized database, says Chris Theodore, head of North American product development.
The confusion was so great that Ford delayed Expedition production for six months until February 2002.
At his old employer, BMW, says Reitzle, 300 engineers might be assigned to early development work; at Ford, as few as 20 might be assigned.
Because of such disarray, Ford's production costs went up by $1 billion in 2001 instead of declining by $1 billion as planned, says Padilla. They're still going up in 2002.
That, in turn, helps General Motors
Ford's U.S. sales of cars and light trucks fell 11.7 percent during the first four months of 2002 to 1.07 million vehicles. GM's sales fell 0.3 percent to 1.53 million.
Last year, Ford stumbled to seventh place in quality among big automakers, according to J. D. Power & Associates, a market researcher in Agoura Hills, California. Ford had 162 customer complaints per 100 cars compared with 115 for industry leader Toyota.
Ford also needed 25.7 hours of labor time to assemble each vehicle at its North American factories in 2000 compared with 17.4 for industry-leading Nissan
. Of 45 executive officers on the job in March 1998, only 13 remained at Ford this past March.
Ford's turnover rate matched that of Chrysler Corp., where executive defections generated headlines after Daimler-Benz AG bought the company in 1998
In March, Ford paid $10.5 million to more than 500 managers to settle two age-discrimination and race- discrimination lawsuits in Detroit.
When Bill Ford announced Nasser's retirement to a crowd of employees at Ford headquarters in October, he received a standing ovation.
After taking over, Bill Ford immediately scrapped Nasser's evaluation system and put Kwik-Fit and other Nasser acquisitions up for sale. Ford asked executives like James Padilla to attend directors meetings for the first time ever.
Ford ordered cutbacks in future products, delaying bigger and more powerful Superduty and Ranger pickups after concluding that he lacked enough engineers to launch those two vehicles plus a new F-150 pickup almost simultaneously starting in 2003, Padilla says. The Ranger is now scheduled to appear in 2005, with the Superduty to follow in 2006.
David Thursfield, chairman of Ford's European operations
says he expects Ford to earn up to $1 billion annually in Europe by mid-decade compared with a $1.13 billion loss in 1999.Thursfield says he'll boost productivity by 26 percent to 16.5 hours of labor time per vehicle, potentially making Cologne the most productive auto factory in Europe. He says he'll fill individualized customer orders in 15 days -- or one-third of the time needed before.
Bill Ford has abandoned plans for a single new sedan to overtake the top-selling Toyota Camry. Instead, he plans to use models developed by Volvo and Mazda Motor Corp. -- of which Ford owns 33 percent -- to challenge Camry from two directions.
First, Ford plans to offer a CrossTrainer sport utility that will have a carlike ride because it's derived from the Volvo S60 sedan. Second, in 2005, he'll offer a redesigned Taurus that will be a stretch version of the Mazda 6 sedan being introduced this year in the U.S. and Japan.
Bill Ford told Bloomberg News in March that he's looking for an additional boost from a new J. D. Power quality report.
Ford rose to No. 5 of seven multi-brand automakers with 143 complaints per 100 vehicles, a 12 percent improvement from its No. 7 finish of 163 complaints per 100 vehicles in last year's J.D. Power & Associates initial-quality study
Even if Bill Ford's turnaround plans work, the company's 2007 pretax profit margin will be 6.1 percent, down from a high of 9.9 percent in 1987, predicts Merrill Lynch's Casesa. The Ford division captured 17.5 percent of U.S. sales during the first four months of 2002 -- less than its 19 percent target.
Eighteen months from now, Ford plans to launch redesigned versions of its F-150 pickups and Windstar minivans. A new Mustang follows in 2004.
Until such vehicles arrive and until the flexible manufacturing system starts cutting costs, investors won't be able to evaluate how Bill Ford is doing as CEO, says Brian Bruce, a money manager at PanAgora Asset Management Inc., which owns 1.09 million Ford shares.
gekürzte Zusammenfassung auf englisch:
war gerade bei bloomberg und wird schon verschwunden sein,da aber wichtig und vermutlich Kurs beeinflussend,stell ich´s mal rein
Ford lost $800 million on first-quarter sales of $39.9 billion after earning $1.06 billion on sales of $42.5 billion in the year-earlier period. Its Ford and Lincoln-Mercury brands captured 19.7 percent of U.S. sales during the first four months of 2002-a 21-year low.
Ford is the biggest borrower in the U.S. corporate bond market, with $67.4 billion outstanding on March 31. Standard & Poor's rates its long-term debt as BBB+, the company's lowest rating since 1984. It shares, trading at $17.59 on May 30, have dropped 28 percent in a year.
John Devine, chief financial officer of General Motors Corp., says he's more concerned about competitors in Tokyo than in Detroit. ``The ones we're worried about are the ones that come in with yen-based costs,'' Devine says.
On May 30, one U.S. dollar bought 123 yen, a 16 percent increase over two years that made U.S. profits for Japanese automakers bigger when converted into yen. That helps Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co., all of which are now building or expanding U.S. truck factories.
John Casesa, a Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst, expects Ford to burn through $4.3 billion in cash this year. ``If their earnings don't improve, they'll be short of cash again by the end of 2003,'' Casesa says.
At that point, Ford could be forced to sell Hertz Corp., the biggest U.S. car rental company and its last big noncore asset, Casesa says.
The company loses $2,000 pretax on each car sold in North America and earns $1,000 on each truck, says David Healy, a Burnham Securities Inc. analyst.
Ford decided last year that future small Lincolns will be built with existing components, not designed from scratch, say people familiar with the situation. When Ford shifted the savings to the Mercury division, Reitzle erupted in anger, the people say.
Reitzle stepped down in April. He'll become CEO of Linde AG, a German industrial gas company, next year
The Merrill Lynch Basic Value Fund owned 4.2 million Ford shares on Dec. 31 and has purchased additional shares since then, says John Arege, an analyst at the fund. ``
Other investors have doubts. Chris Wiles, president of Rockhaven Asset Management LLC, questions whether Bill Ford can fix the company.
Tom Giles, chief strategist at Dean Investment Associates in Dayton, Ohio, sold all of his 509,533 Ford shares last autumn and bought Honeywell International Inc. instead. From Oct. 1 to May 30, Honeywell shares rose 45 percent to $37.84, and Ford shares rose 2 percent.
60 percent of the parts on the redesigned Expedition are brand-new, says James Padilla, head of Ford's North American operations. Japanese automakers minimize the complexity of new- vehicle launches by making sure only about 35 percent of their parts are brand-new, Padilla says.
The production system became so complicated that factory planners had trouble just keeping track of the parts.
In 2000, only 40 percent of parts for the new Expedition matched the dimensions specified in Ford's computerized database, says Chris Theodore, head of North American product development.
The confusion was so great that Ford delayed Expedition production for six months until February 2002.
At his old employer, BMW, says Reitzle, 300 engineers might be assigned to early development work; at Ford, as few as 20 might be assigned.
Because of such disarray, Ford's production costs went up by $1 billion in 2001 instead of declining by $1 billion as planned, says Padilla. They're still going up in 2002.
That, in turn, helps General Motors
Ford's U.S. sales of cars and light trucks fell 11.7 percent during the first four months of 2002 to 1.07 million vehicles. GM's sales fell 0.3 percent to 1.53 million.
Last year, Ford stumbled to seventh place in quality among big automakers, according to J. D. Power & Associates, a market researcher in Agoura Hills, California. Ford had 162 customer complaints per 100 cars compared with 115 for industry leader Toyota.
Ford also needed 25.7 hours of labor time to assemble each vehicle at its North American factories in 2000 compared with 17.4 for industry-leading Nissan
. Of 45 executive officers on the job in March 1998, only 13 remained at Ford this past March.
Ford's turnover rate matched that of Chrysler Corp., where executive defections generated headlines after Daimler-Benz AG bought the company in 1998
In March, Ford paid $10.5 million to more than 500 managers to settle two age-discrimination and race- discrimination lawsuits in Detroit.
When Bill Ford announced Nasser's retirement to a crowd of employees at Ford headquarters in October, he received a standing ovation.
After taking over, Bill Ford immediately scrapped Nasser's evaluation system and put Kwik-Fit and other Nasser acquisitions up for sale. Ford asked executives like James Padilla to attend directors meetings for the first time ever.
Ford ordered cutbacks in future products, delaying bigger and more powerful Superduty and Ranger pickups after concluding that he lacked enough engineers to launch those two vehicles plus a new F-150 pickup almost simultaneously starting in 2003, Padilla says. The Ranger is now scheduled to appear in 2005, with the Superduty to follow in 2006.
David Thursfield, chairman of Ford's European operations
says he expects Ford to earn up to $1 billion annually in Europe by mid-decade compared with a $1.13 billion loss in 1999.Thursfield says he'll boost productivity by 26 percent to 16.5 hours of labor time per vehicle, potentially making Cologne the most productive auto factory in Europe. He says he'll fill individualized customer orders in 15 days -- or one-third of the time needed before.
Bill Ford has abandoned plans for a single new sedan to overtake the top-selling Toyota Camry. Instead, he plans to use models developed by Volvo and Mazda Motor Corp. -- of which Ford owns 33 percent -- to challenge Camry from two directions.
First, Ford plans to offer a CrossTrainer sport utility that will have a carlike ride because it's derived from the Volvo S60 sedan. Second, in 2005, he'll offer a redesigned Taurus that will be a stretch version of the Mazda 6 sedan being introduced this year in the U.S. and Japan.
Bill Ford told Bloomberg News in March that he's looking for an additional boost from a new J. D. Power quality report.
Ford rose to No. 5 of seven multi-brand automakers with 143 complaints per 100 vehicles, a 12 percent improvement from its No. 7 finish of 163 complaints per 100 vehicles in last year's J.D. Power & Associates initial-quality study
Even if Bill Ford's turnaround plans work, the company's 2007 pretax profit margin will be 6.1 percent, down from a high of 9.9 percent in 1987, predicts Merrill Lynch's Casesa. The Ford division captured 17.5 percent of U.S. sales during the first four months of 2002 -- less than its 19 percent target.
Eighteen months from now, Ford plans to launch redesigned versions of its F-150 pickups and Windstar minivans. A new Mustang follows in 2004.
Until such vehicles arrive and until the flexible manufacturing system starts cutting costs, investors won't be able to evaluate how Bill Ford is doing as CEO, says Brian Bruce, a money manager at PanAgora Asset Management Inc., which owns 1.09 million Ford shares.
