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Jim Hackett says metal tariffs costing Ford $1 billion in profits

Ford CEO Jim Hackett divulged in an interview with Bloomberg that the Trump administration's tariffs on metals imported from the European Union, Canada and Mexico have affected the automaker's balance sheet, adding that trade disputes need a quick resolution. "From Ford's perspective, the metals tariffs took about $1 billion in profit from us," Hackett told the outlet. "The irony is we source most of that in the U.S. today anyways. We're in a good place right now, but if it goes on longer there will be more damage." Hackett did not specify what period the $1 billion covered, but a Ford spokesman said the CEO was referring to internal forecasts at Ford for higher tariff-related costs in 2018 and 2019. President Trump in March announced his intention to enact 25 percent tariffs on steel imports and 10 percent on imported aluminum from the three trade zones as a way to protect the U.S. steel industry. The move sent U.S. automakers' stock prices plunging at a time when they were coming off weak monthly sales reports. Separately, President Trump has targeted China with two rounds of tariffs targeting a combined $260 billion worth of imports. China has responded by enacting 25-percent tariffs on U.S. goods including vehicle imports. In the interview, Hackett said that has hurt demand for Lincoln, which has found a growing market for its luxury vehicles in China, and made the price of the Lincoln MKC less attractive to Chinese buyers. The MKC is built at the company's Louisville, Ky. assembly plant. "We've had to move people in that factory to other operations because of that trade problem," he said. It's not clear what those moves entail or how many workers were involved. Autoblog sought comment from a Ford spokeswoman and will update this story if we hear back. Ford last month announced it was scrapping plans to import the Focus Active small crossover to the U.S. from China because of the new 25-percent tariffs on Chinese imports. Material from Reuters was used in this report Related Video:

2015 Ford Focus

Sitting down at the pre-drive briefing with Ford engineers ahead of sampling the refreshed 2015 Focus, water bottles clinked as we wet our whistles before Q&A. While pouring a glass, we noticed something stamped on the bottle label: "1L." One liter. We were palming the exact displacement of the EcoBoost engine our group was about to drive. This was undoubtedly coincidence (such bottles litter every conference and dinner table in Europe) but it served to drive home just how small the total swept volume of Ford's wunderkind powerplant really is. It's tiny.
Of course, this isn't our first run-in with the little triple - we've sampled its turbocharged charms before in Ford's smaller Fiesta. At that time, we found it had plenty of poke for the subcompact, but the larger C-segment Focus carries around another 450 pounds or so and pushes a wider profile through the air. Would the three-cylinder have the stuffing to make the most of the Focus' athletic chassis, or would it be a letdown? Would it be the same as it was when we tested it in a Euro-spec Focus a couple of years ago? There was nothing left for it but to head out on the bucolic roads surrounding Versailles the day after the Paris Motor Show and find out for ourselves.

Ford books $2.6B pretax quarterly profit

While its crosstown competitors at General Motors are smarting over a drastic drop in net income to $200 million in the second quarter, Ford has reason to celebrate. The Blue Oval has announced its own Q2 financial results, including a growing net income of $1.3 billion, a $78 million increase over last year. Pretax profits for the company reached $2.6 billion, up $44 million from 2013, but total revenue dropped slightly to $37.4 billion, down from $37.9 billion. Profits per share before one-time charges totaled 40 cents per share, beating Wall Street analysts' expectations of 36 cents a share.
Regionally, the Blue Oval performed strongly, as well. North America posted a record quarterly pre-tax profit of $2.4 billion, a $119 million increase. Europe also showed signs of turn around with its first profit in three years of $14 million after a loss of $306 million in Q2 2013. Ford is actually predicting profitability in the troubled region in 2015. Asia Pacific operations also performed well with $159 million in profits, up $29 million from last year. The only region where the business posted a loss was South America.
According to Automotive News, Ford also announced more precise plans about the changeover to build the aluminum-intensive 2015 F-150. In August, the Dearborn plant will shutdown for eight weeks to retool and its Kansas City plant will do the same next year.