Detroit – Ford Motor Co., which previously identified seven factories it intends to idle between now and 2008, said in a regulatory filing Tuesday it will idle the remaining seven plants in its Way Forward restructuring plan between 2010 and 2012.
Ford has not identified those final seven plants. Its quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission indicates the Dearborn, Mich.-based automaker has no plans to close any plants in 2009.
Ford, which posted a $1.2 billion loss during the first three months of the year, is in the early months of a six-year turnaround effort that calls for eliminating 34,000 jobs; closing 14 plants, including seven assembly and seven parts plants; and improving market share, among other goals.
For the first four months of the year, Ford’s share of the U.S. new-vehicle market is 18.5 percent. That’s down from 19.2 percent a year ago. And the company anticipates a challenging operating environment in the future.
“Our business faces strong headwinds as we experience increasing commodity cost pressures and mounting financial pressure within our supply base,” Ford wrote in its filing.
“In addition, increasing fuel prices and growing competition from other manufacturers that are introducing an increasing number of new products may have a growing effect on our traditional areas of strength (e.g., full-size trucks and SUVs).”
Ford’s filing, which was released two days before the company’s annual shareholder meeting in Wilmington, Del., also revealed that the automaker expects its global market share this year to be flat or down.
