DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) - Ford Motor Co.'s financial officials are estimating the automaker could lose up to $9 billion this year including the costs of a massive restructuring plan, a newspaper reported Thursday.
The Detroit News reported that Chief Financial Officer Don Leclair's office has said in a financial forecast report that that Ford's global automotive operations will post a pretax loss of $5.6 billion to $5.9 billion this year. Once restructuring costs are factored in, the loss could widen to $9 billion, the newspaper said, citing a senior Ford official who it said had firsthand knowledge of the report. The report said most of the loss would come from Ford's North American operations, the newspaper said.Ford sales have suffered in North America as the auto market shifts away from trucks and truck-based sport utility vehicles and toward more fuel-efficient models often made by Asian automakers. Company spokeswoman Becky Sanch said Ford would not discuss the report. ''Those aren't numbers that we shared, and we're not commenting,'' she told The Associated Press on Thursday. The report comes as Ford's board of directors was to meet for a second day Thursday to discuss another round of restructuring that likely is to include more plant closures and job cuts. Ford lost $1.4 billion during the first half of the year and is under pressure from Wall Street to make further cuts and roll out new cars and trucks more quickly. In July, the company pledged to accelerate its ''Way Forward'' restructuring plan, which when introduced in January called for cutting up to 30,000 jobs and closing 14 facilities by 2012. Ford shares fell 37 cents, or 4 percent, to $8.82 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.