Following on the heels of Ford ’s announcement that it will idle its Wayne, Michigan SUV plant for five weeks this summer, the Blue Oval has announced that it will be cutting its overall production schedule for the remainder of 2008.
For the rest of the second quarter, Ford will be producing 690,000 vehicles in North America — a 20,000 drop from Ford’s original plans and a 15 percent decrease from the second quarter of 2007. Third quarter production will fall to between 510,000 and 540,000 units — down 15 to 20 percent from the year before — and fourth-quarter production is expected to be between 590,000 and 630,000 units — down 2 to 8 percent from year-ago levels.
Despite an overall reduction, Ford will actually be ramping up production of its hot-selling cars and crossovers.
However, the sales decline of Ford’s most profitable trucks and SUVs will push back the automaker’s North American turnaround plan. “Unless there is a fairly rapid turnaround in U.S. business conditions, which we are not anticipating, it now looks like it will take longer than expected to achieve our North American Automotive profitability goal,” said Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally. “Overall, we expect to be about break-even companywide in 2009 – with continued strong results in Europe and South America.”
