The Blue Oval posted its third quarter results on Tuesday reporting a net income of $1.6 billion or 40 cents per share, which is about the same as the third quarter 2011. Ford has been recording a pre-tax profit for 13 consecutive quarters.
Even though its European unit continued to downward spiral posting a $468 million loss in the quarter (from a $306 million loss last year), Ford’s North America unit achieved its highest quarterly profit and operating margin since at least 2000, at $2.3 billion and a 12 percent operating margin.
Ford has already announced a re-structuring plan for its European business that calls for the closure of three facilities in Belgium and the UK and the relocation of production.
The automaker has said that these moves will reduce Ford Europe’s vehicle assembly capacity, excluding Russia, by 18 percent or 355,000 units, affect 13 percent of its workforce, and yield gross cost savings annually of $450 million to $500 million when completed.
In other parts of the world, in Asia-Pacific and Africa, Ford posted a pretax operating income of $45 million, up from a $43 million loss last year, while in South America, the automaker recorded a pretax operating income of $9 million, down from a profit of $276 million in the third quarter of 2011.
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