FORD Motor Co, the auto maker that lost a record US$12.6 billion in 2006, may report a narrower fourth-quarter loss after Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally closed plants and cut jobs in his first full year on the job.
Mulally, a former Boeing Co executive who took over the world's third-biggest auto maker in September 2006, also won a contract with the United Auto Workers that shifts retiree health-care obligations to a union-run fund and cuts pay for new employees.
Ford's goal is to post an annual profit next year, Bloomberg News reported.
"They're doing the right things," said Mirko Mikelic, who helps manage US$21 billion in fixed-income assets including Ford debt at Fifth Third Asset Management in Grand Rapids, Michigan. "They still have a ways to go."
Ford lost 24 US cents a share last quarter, based on the average estimate of 15 analysts compiled by Bloomberg News, excluding what the company considers one-time items. Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford had a loss of US$1.10 a share on that basis a year earlier.
Through three quarters of 2007, Ford had net income of US$88 million, or five cents a share, compared with a year-earlier net loss of US$6.99 billion, or US$3.73. The company trimmed automotive costs by US$4.6 billion while boosting sales by almost US$8 billion in the nine months, according to a United States regulatory filing.
Ford reports fourth-quarter results today before the start of trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
US sales of Ford's large pickups and sport-utility vehicles fell last quarter as gasoline prices stayed near US$3 a gallon, while vehicle demand industrywide declined amid a weakening housing market and waning consumer confidence.
The firm's decline helped Toyota Motor Corp move up to No. 2 in annual US sales, a ranking Ford had held since 1931. General Motors Corp is the biggest US auto maker.
Ford "is struggling against some serious handicaps, both internal and external," David Healy, an analyst at New York-based Burnham Securities, wrote in a note on Tuesday. Still, the company "has succeeded in bringing itself to approximate breakeven," he said. Healy doesn't rate its shares.
Auto makers including Ford have forecast that industrywide US sales will fall at least during this year's first half.
Ford shares tumbled to a 22-year closing low of US$5.76 on January 17 in New York Stock Exchange trading.