Published January 25th, 2007
in Ford India.
Ford Motor Co lost $5.8 billion in the fourth quarter amid slumping sales and huge restructuring costs, pushing the fabled automaker’s deficit for the year to $12.7 billion, the largest in its 103-year history.
The annual loss reported on Thursday surpassed its previous record for a year of $7.39 billion set in 1992. The 2006 loss amounted to of $6.79 per share versus a profit of $1.44 billion, or 77 cents a share, in 2005.
It was far from the largest quarterly or annual corporate loss on record - the company now known as Time Warner Inc - reported a $97.2 billion loss in 2002, largely due to new accounting rules about how to value assets. Ford could not rely on accounting rules, however, for its staggering total, which represented a loss of $4,380 on each car or truck they sold in 2006. Ford’s loss also did not surpass the worst such annual total in the auto industry. General Motors Corp lost more than $20 billion in 1992.
Dearborn-based Ford expects more losses for this year. It expects to burn up $10 billion in cash on automotive operations through 2009 and spend another $7 billion to invest in new products. More
Courtesy: Hindustan Times
Published January 24th, 2007
in Uncategorized.
If someone asked me when was the last time a significant development happened in four stroke spark ignition petrol engines, I would look up to the sky, dig into my memory, read up some old books and then perhaps come up with a wise-crack: may be around the time Adam was born!
Really petrol engines are products of the last century. In fact nothing really has happened to the petrol engine since they began to use fuel injection about 35 years ago!
There have been no leap-frog of new inventions, discoveries or concepts that have made any significant contribution to the performance of these engines over almost four decades. All improvements have been marginal and completely due to electronics and computer technology. More
Courtesy: www.auto.indiatimes.com
Published January 22nd, 2007
in Maruti Udyog and Car Money.
Car industry leader Marti Udyoug Ltd (MUL) on Monday posted a net profit of Rest 376.41 core for the third quarter of the current fiscal year, up 11 per cent over Rest 339 core in the same October-December quarter of 2005.
The result was below market expectations but as a result of an extraordinary item in the form of a loss in a subsidiary but its shares rose on expectations of higher profitability.
The result takes into account a loss of Rs 54.61 crore Maruti Suzuki Automobiles India Ltd (MSAIL), which was merged with Maruti from April 1 last year. The merger was approved during the October-December quarter.
Maruti’s shares closed 3.1 per cent at 938.6 rupees on hopes of weaker metal prices and higher car prices which are expected to ease the pressure on earnings.
Maruti’s operating margins fell by 115 basis points on the year to 13.8 percent, while raw material costs rose 3 per cent. More
Courtesy: Hindustan Times
