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Ford Motor on Wednesday posted a lower operating fourth-quarter profit as losses in every global region except North America weighed on results.
The No. 2 U.S. automaker, which has announced an alliance with Germany's Volkswagen AG, is restructuring operations globally.
It is making cuts in Europe, looking to reorganize its South American operations and turn around China.
"It was not a year we were happy with and the fourth quarter continued that theme," Chief Financial Officer Bob Shanks told reporters at the company's headquarters outside Detroit. He acknowledged the potential for such disruptions amid strikes this year in regions it is restructuring.
Last week, Ford provided a cloudier 2019 outlook due to tariff costs and uncertainty over Britain's exit from the European Union, only saying it had the potential for higher earnings and revenue.
That was in contrast to Ford's larger U.S. rival General Motors, which on January 11 forecast higher 2019 earnings that far surpassed analysts' estimates.
The automaker said on January 10 that it would cut thousands of jobs and look at plant closures in Europe as part of its plan to return to profit in the region.
Ford posted a fourth-quarter net loss of 116 million U.S. dollars, or three cents a share, down from a net profit of 2.5 billion U.S. dollars, or 63 cents a share, in the same quarter in 2017, largely due to one-time pension costs and other charges. Excluding one-time charges, it earned 30 cents a share, in line with an outlook Ford executives provided last week that was shy of Wall Street's expectations.
In North America, Ford posted a pre-tax profit of two billion U.S. dollars. In every other region, it saw losses, with Asia reporting the largest loss of 381 million U.S. dollars, driven by plummeting sales in China. On January 15, Ford and VW said they would join forces on commercial vehicles and were exploring joint development of electric and self-driving technology.
Ford, which ended 2018 with 23.1 billion U.S. dollars in cash, previously said it remained committed to its operations in Europe and South America, and its losses in China would narrow this year.
Ford shares rose about one percent to 8.40 U.S. dollars in extended trading.
(CGTN)
