Ford Cuts 2005 Earnings Forecast by 29%

ord Motor Co. late Friday dropped its 2005 earnings forecast by 29%, due in part to slumping truck and sport utility vehicle sales.

Ford backed off an earlier $1.5 billion pretax profit forecast and said its earnings would be about $900 million less than earlier projected.

Ford, which makes Class 1-7 trucks, sold more than 160,000 trucks in February, according to data from Ward’s Communications. About 75,000 of those were Class 1 trucks of less than 6,000 pounds.

GM had also cut its earnings forecast by more than half on March 16.

Ford lost $5.45 billion in 2001 before turning that around to make a $3.49 billion profit in 2004 after cutting more than 30,000 jobs, Bloomberg reported, and its high-profit truck sales are slipping.

The company cited various factors to the lowered forecast including a weak dollar, rising oil and steel prices, higher health-care costs for its workers and increased competition.

Ford also said it would not achieve a goal of earning $7 billion before taxes in 2006.