ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 1, 1996 TAG: 9602010027
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: DETROIT
SOURCE: Associated Press
Ford Motor Co. said Wednesday its fourth-quarter profit fell 57.9 percent and 1995 earnings were down 22 percent, due mainly to slower sales, the cost of launching new models and losses in Latin America.
But the 1995 profit was fourth-highest for the No.2 automaker, whose report closed the books on a year with the second-highest profits in history for the Big Three domestic auto manufacturers.
Ford, General Motors Corp. and Chrysler Corp. combined to earn $13 billion for the year, down from 1994's record $13.9 billion. Nearly 600,000 of their U.S. hourly employees will get a share of the profits in payments that average $3,200 at Chrysler, $1,700 at Ford and $800 at GM.
None of the companies is predicting tremendous growth for the industry in 1996, but all have said they expect U.S. sales will nearly equal last year's, assuming interest rates continue to fall.
Interest rates, which increased 3 percentage points in the year that ended last February, get the blame from the automakers for 1995 sales that failed to meet their forecasts.
``The effect of interest rates was just far more awesome, I think, than any of us expected,'' Ford Finance Vice President David N. McCammon said Wednesday before the Federal Reserve cut a key interest rate.
McCammon said launching new, high-volume car and truck models had cost the company ``several hundred million'' dollars each quarter since mid-1995 and that those costs would not level off until mid-1996.
LENGTH: Short : 38 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Chart by AP.by CNB