Ford fahrt ineuropa loss
The wait-and-see trend of the u.S. Carmaker ford in europe with its regional headquarters in koln has continued.
The operating loss – i.E. Before interest and taxes (ebit) – was 398 million US dollars (350 million euros) in the european business in 2018, as announced by ford in dearborn, u.S.A. A year earlier, the company had posted an operating profit of 367 million dollars, which means that the operating result plummeted by 765 million dollars within a year.
The company justified the red figures among other things with higher costs and unfavorable exchange rate developments. A year earlier – in 2016 – ford had even posted a healthy operating profit of 1.32 billion dollars on the continent.
The U.S. Carmaker has around 50.000 employees in europe, almost half of them in germany. The company’s management had long since launched a restructuring program to return the business in europe to profitability.
A "considerable number" of jobs are to be eliminated, the management announced. How many, will be announced only in the middle of the year. Then the company may have had to dig deep into its pockets for extensive severance pay and other measures.
The number of vehicles entering the market also fell in europe last year, by 49.000 (about 3 percent) to 1.533 million. Last year’s red figures, now officially on the table, were allowed to keep the pressure up in the ongoing negotiations with the works council.
Criticism had recently been voiced on the employee side – the head of the european works council, martin hennig, accused the management of structural errors that had contributed to the shortfall here in germany. In addition, it is unfair that ford europe has to pay more money to suppliers than ford in the u.S.
Approximately 18 employees work in koln.000 people, and the plant produces the fiesta small car. In saarlouis, there are about 6,000. In addition, there is a research center in aachen with several hundred employees. In addition, there are rough plants in spain and romania.
Europe is not the only problem child for the U.S. Carmaker – things are not running smoothly in china and other regions of the world either. The car giant is only doing well in its home market of north america thanks to the demand for suvs and pick-ups. The bottom line for the group in 2018 was a profit of around 3.7 billion U.S. Dollars (3.2 billion euros) – in one year, this figure has halved. In the last quarter of 2018, ford actually posted a loss overall – so the trend is anything but positive.