New York (awp/afp) – The production of the American manufacturer Ford is still restricted by the lack of semiconductors but the demand for its vehicles remains solid and the group sells them at high prices, which encourages it to maintain its forecast for the year.
In the first quarter, the group delivered 966,000 vehicles, or 9% less than a year ago, details a press release on Wednesday.
Its turnover fell by 5% to 34.5 billion dollars.
“The continuing global shortage of semiconductors dampened Ford’s production and shipments in January and February, although manufacturing rates improved significantly in March,” the company said in a statement.
The group was supported by the increase in selling prices, the discounts offered to customers being notably lower.
But it also had to contend with higher commodity prices and lower volumes.
Its profit excluding special items before tax and interest reached $2.3 billion.
The group also revised down the value of its investment in the manufacturer of electric pickups Rivian, whose action has fallen significantly since its IPO in November. This resulted in an accounting loss of $5.2 billion.
Ford recorded a net loss of $3.1 billion as a result.
Ford said it entered the second quarter with an “extremely healthy” order book. And with the current selling prices, the group still expects to reach its forecast for adjusted earnings before interest and taxes of 11.5 and 12.5 billion dollars.
However, the situation on the semiconductor side must improve in the second half of the year and raw material costs must not soar by more than an additional $4 billion compared to the previous year, underlines Ford.
Its forecast “also assumes that supply chain and production disruptions resulting from new Covid-related health issues and lockdowns in China will not deteriorate further,” the company added.
The action of the group took almost 3% in electronic trading following the closing of the stock market.
Ford also claims to be still on track to increase its production capacity of electric vehicles to 600,000 units per year by the end of 2023. The group notably officially launched production of the electric version of its popular F pickup on Tuesday. -150, the first copies of which will be sent to customers “in the coming days”.
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