Ford moves to halt steep losses in US operations

DETROIT - Ford will soon announce a restructuring plan to return its key North American vehicle operations to profitability, says chairman and chief executive Bill Ford jnr.

"It will encompass a lot of things, an affordable business structure ... some new things we are going to announce that will surprise people positively," Ford said.

"It will be really, in my mind, a rather comprehensive announcement." The car-maker has said it is working on more restructuring actions to halt steep losses in its North American business.

Strong competition, soaring healthcare and raw material costs, and a slide in US market share forced the second-largest US car-maker to slash profit forecasts twice this year.

Ford's North American car operations swung to a pretax loss of US$1.21billion ($1.7 billion), including charges, in the second quarter.

Ford was speaking after an address to business leaders, where he paid tribute to departing Chrysler Group chief executive Deiter Zetsche, who is heading back to Germany to lead DaimlerChrysler.

He said the company had not decided on a date for the announcement yet, but he indicated it would not be before October.

The car-maker has not ruled out deeper job cuts in Ford's salaried workforce or the closing of manufacturing plants.

Ford, which has said its global automotive business will post a loss this year, announced earlier that it would cut its North American white-collar workforce by 8 per cent this year.

Bill Ford has been meeting top executives in the past two months to hash out additional cost-cutting moves.

- REUTERS