adminof its most profitable model line.
Ford will hire a third crew at its plant in Claycomo, Missouri, to boost F-150 output starting in the third quarter, the company said today in a statement.
The No. 2 US carmaker is adding more than 2 000 employees at the factory for the extra pick-up production and to begin building the Transit commercial van in mid-2014.
The F-Series pick-up line is a juggernaut for Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford. It’s led the US truck segment the last 36 years and has been the best-selling vehicle of any type in the country for more than three decades.
Ford plans to make more pick-ups to keep up with demand after 21 straight months of increases for the F-Series as rebounding housing and energy sectors lift US market share for Ford, General Motors Co and Chrysler Group LLC.
“It’s a huge vote of confidence in our truck, our sales and what’s going on in the industry overall and the economy,” Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s president of the Americas, said in a telephone interview.
“We wouldn’t be hiring if we didn’t think it was going to last. It is a strong indication of how we feel about our continued leadership in the segment.”
Kansas City Assembly will be capable of operating 120 hours per week after the third crew is added, up from the 100 hours per week that it’s been running with two shifts, Hinrichs said.
Ford, GM and Fiat SpA-controlled Chrysler yesterday reported better-than-projected US sales increases for April, building on their first sweep of market share gains in the first quarter of any year in two decades.
Ford’s sales of cars and light trucks rose 18 percent, and GM and Chrysler both increased 11 percent, according to company statements released yesterday.
The carmakers exceeded the average estimates of 11 analysts in a survey by Bloomberg for gains of 17 percent by Ford and 10 percent by GM and Chrysler.
Carmakers are making gains in the US as consumer confidence improves and the recovery in the housing market gathers momentum, buoyed by record low borrowing costs and a tight supply of homes for sale.
New-home construction in the US climbed in March to the highest level in almost five years, with starts increasing 7 percent to a 1,04 million annual rate, the Commerce Department said April 16.
Auto dealers including AutoNation Inc, the largest US retailer of new cars and trucks, also are citing growing demand from energy companies in states such as Texas.
“There still is a significant number of personal-use buyers in the market, but what’s fuelling the sales growth now are the housing, construction and oil industries that need trucks and have traditionally driven truck sales,” said Hinrichs (46).
“Most of the drivers for the increased sales you’re seeing on trucks are coming from the commercial side.”
Combined sales of Ford’s F-Series, Detroit-based GM’s Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra and Chrysler’s Ram trucks surged 29 percent, the companies said.
The carmakers built on gains in the first three months of the year, when Ford, GM and Auburn Hills, Michigan-based Chrysler all gained US market share in a first quarter for the first time since 1993, according to the Automotive News Data Center.
“The Big Three are gaining big time because the housing market’s gaining big time,” Eric Noble, president of the Car Lab, an industry consultant in Orange, California, said yesterday on Bloomberg Television.
“The economy is going well enough that businesses and independent owners have confidence they can chin the bar. They’ve got to replace the tools, and that means replacing the truck.”
No model is more important or more defended by US carmakers than the full-size pick-up.
The US$8 000 to US$10 000 in gross profit that each truck hauls in for the three companies account for the vast majority of their earnings — an estimated 90 percent for Ford and two-thirds for GM, Morgan Stanley said earlier this year.
Toyota Motor Corp revealed a redesigned Tundra in February at the Chicago auto show that is scheduled to arrive at dealerships in September.
Tundra deliveries have increased 15 percent this year to 31 856. Chrysler’s Ram trucks, the No. 3 model line of pick-ups among US automakers, almost outsold Tundra in the month of April alone, with 31 409 deliveries.
“The Japanese carmakers don’t get the same lift benefit from those kinds of things that stimulate truck growth,” Larry Dominique, president of TrueCar Inc.’s ALG and a former product planner for Nissan Motor Co,” said by telephone.
“Those trucks that put a lot of coffers into the domestics, when they’re up, it really is a boon to the domestic manufacturers.”
Ford’s North American operations earned US$2,4 billion in the year’s first three months, the division’s best quarter ever, after setting annual records of US$8,34 billion with a 10,4 percent profit margin last year.
GM is rolling out revamped Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra pick-ups this month. Ford answered GM’s new offerings by showing an F-150 pick-up prototype at the Detroit auto show in January called the Atlas that foreshadowed its future trucks.
The Atlas has a massive front end, with thick chrome bars across the grille accented by narrow LED headlamps.
It features cameras in the front, rear and side mirrors to give the driver a 360-degree view on an 8-inch dashboard screen while backing up. It also has technology borrowed from hybrids that shuts the engine off at stop lights to save fuel.
Ford has said it plans to shed as much as 340kg from its next-generation truck to improve fuel economy as part of a company fleet-wide goal to cut 110kg to 340kg from all of its models.
Ford gained 0,2 percent to US$13,41 at 9:56am New York time. The shares rose 3,3 percent this year through yesterday, trailing an 11 percent climb by the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. — Bloomberg.
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