Global wholesales are expected to continue to be slow for Ford in October but will pick up toward the end of the year, as the company continues to roll-out a slew of new products.
DETROIT, MI – Global wholesales are expected to continue to be slow for Ford in October but will pick up toward the end of the year, as the company continues to roll-out a slew of new products.
That was the message from the Dearborn automaker's executives in a conference call with analysts and the media Friday to discuss the company's third quarter results, which included a 3 percent decrease in wholesales, a 2 percent drop in revenue and a 34 percent decline in net profit.
"It's not a pause in our sales growth, it's a pit stop," Ford president and CEO Mark Fields said. While acknowledging that the quarter was "challenging," Fields also noted that the company launched three times as many products as it had during the year-ago quarter.
In the latest quarter, Ford began production of the all-new, 2015 Ford Mustang, as well as a refreshed Expedition and Lincoln Navigator in North America.
It launched a new Ka and F-350 and F-4000 in South America, and introduced the Lincoln MKZ and MKC in China. It announced new C-MAX, Grand C-MAX and S-MAX for Europe.
The automaker also announced 25 new vehicles for the Middle East & Africa by 2016.
Production has begun on the all-new, 2015 Ford F-150, a highly anticipated, potentially game-changing pickup truck constructed with an all-aluminum body. It's set to arrive at U.S. dealerships before the end of the year.
The F-150 is manufactured at Ford's Dearborn Truck Plant in Dearborn, Mich., and Kansas City Assembly Plant in Claycomo, Mo. Dearborn production of the 2015 F-150 began in the fourth-quarter, and will start in Kansas City in 2015.
Due to the truck's significant changes, officials increased shutdown time at the two full-size pickup truck plants to roughly 13 weeks combined, including from Aug. 25 through Sept. 21 at Dearborn Truck Plant.
"We've now started mass production and we are exactly where we expected to be at this point," Fields said Friday.
In total, Fields said 12 of the automaker's 23 product launches are now complete.
Meanwhile, Ford's global market share is estimated at 7.4 percent, unchanged from a year ago
Here's how the company fared year-over-year by region in the quarter:
North America
The company's market share fell to 13.8 percent from 14.6 percent, on wholesale volume that fell to 665,000 from 725,000 units. Ford's market share in the U.S. dropped to 14.1 percent form 14.9 percent.
South America
Market share slid to 8.8 percent from 9.2 percent on a 30,000-unti wholesales decline.
Europe
Ford grew its market share in Europe to 7.6 percent from 7.3 percent, despite a challenging sales environment in Russia. The company's wholesales were 321,000 units there, compared with 303,0000 a year ago.
Middle East & Africa.
Market share remained flat at 5.1 percent. Wholesales grew to 48,000 from 44,000 units.
Asia Pacific
Ford's market share in the Asia Pacific region rose to 3.6 percent from 3.4 percent. In China, market share increased to 4.7 percent from 4.3 percent. The company's wholesales in Asia Pacific grew to 360,000, from 330,000 units in the year-ago quarter.
Going forward, The company expects the global economy to expand 2.5 percent, with weak economic trends in Europe and South America. It expects global industry sales of about 87 million units.
In the third quarter, Ford reported net income of $835 million in the third quarter, a drop of about 34 percent from earnings of $1.27 billion in the year-ago period.
Pre-tax profit fell to $1.2 billion in the third quarter of 2014 from $2.6 billion in the comparable quarter last year. Ford said in an earnings release Friday the pre-tax profit decline is due to lower volume, higher warranty costs and adverse balance sheet exchange effects.
Wholesale volumes were 3 down percent year-over-year in the quarter. Ford's revenue slid 2 percent to $34.9 billion in the period.
Ford's pre-tax profit outlook of $6 billion for the year remains unchanged.
David Muller is the automotive and business reporter for MLive Media Group in Detroit. Email him at dmuller@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter