Ford to Idle Plants After Sales Fall
By REUTERS
Filed at 3:00 p.m. ET
DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co. on Friday reported disappointing November sales, issued a grim forecast for North American production in the new year, and announced plans to idle some passenger car assembly plants later this month to cut excess inventories of unsold cars.
The production cuts and plant closings come against a backdrop of slowing sales throughout the auto industry and a slowing U.S. economy.
Earlier in the day, DaimlerChrylser AG (DCX.N)said it had cut planned fourth-quarter vehicle production for its U.S. brands by 18.5 percent because of slumping sales and the need to cut bloated inventories.
Ford (F.N), the nation's No. 2 automaker, said its U.S. vehicle sales, including its Jaguar, Volvo and Land Rover units, fell 7.2 percent to 300,665 vehicles in November.
Ford forecast first-quarter production would total 1.157 million cars and trucks, down 10 percent from actual production in the 2000 first quarter.
The company expects car production to drop by 80,000 vehicles from a year earlier, or 20 percent, to 402,000, and truck production to fall by 33,000 vehicles, or 4 percent, to 755,000, Ford spokesman George Pipas told reporters in a conference call.
Pipas said Ford plans to idle some North American passenger car assembly plants for the week beginning Dec. 18 to cut excess inventories. He declined to give details.
``There are a couple of down weeks planned at the end of December, right before the holidays. Those are in passenger car plants,'' he said.
In November, Ford passenger car sales dropped 16.3 percent from a year earlier to 111,086, while sales of light and heavy trucks slipped 0.9 percent to 189,579, the automaker said.
U.S. sales of Ford's Explorer sport utility vehicle, hurt by the Bridgestone/Firestone (5108.T) tire recall, fell 11.8 percent to 33,430.
Ford shares were up $1-1/2, or more than 6 percent, at $24-1/4 in afternoon trade on the New York Stock Exchange.