Ford up $1.6B in Q3 thanks to record profits in North America - Motorgen - Automotive Events, Meets, Cruises and Forums

RSS Reader · 10-30-2012, 12:51 PM

Now that the bell has rung to signal the end of Q3 2012, Ford is standing in the ring with both hands in the air like Rocky: The company's overall profit of $1.63 billion for the last three months is nearly equal to its entire 2011 total of $1.94B. Those numbers come thank to the record-breaking pretax operating profit in North America of $2.33B on revenues of $19.5B, the third straight quarter that The Blue Oval has crossed the two-billion mark. Customers are paying more, on average, for Ford vehicles, another contributor to the company maintaining double-digit profit margins on its products.

True, there are a couple of bruises. Losses in Europe continue, with The Continent suffering an even larger decline in pretax revenues to $468 million, and European revenue has dropped to $5.8 billion compared to $7.8 billion a year ago. South America is another sore spot, with exchange rates and currency restrictions being blamed for a 23-percent decline in revenue to $2.3 billion and a screeching 97-percent shrinkage in pretax operating profit to $9 million, down from $276 million in the same quarter last year. Global revenue is also down three percent to $32.1 billion.

But North America's numbers have kept the tide rising, even with the rise in the company's North American tax rate to 30 percent, a 20-percent jump over last year. Ford's prognosis for the rest of the year is for strong results and even greater production - 1.5 million in Q4 versus 1.4 million in Q3 - even with expanded costs to market the new models it is introducing as well as continued challenges in Europe. That means great news for two of our three domestic automakers, following the Chrysler announcement of an 80-percent jump in Q3 profit to $381 million. General Motors will report tomorrow. For the inner CFO in you, Ford's number-filled press release is below.Continue reading Ford up $1.6B in Q3 thanks to record profits in North America
Ford up $1.6B in Q3 thanks to record profits in North America originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 30 Oct 2012 15:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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