ANTAUS Posted January 25, 2018 Share Posted January 25, 2018 https://www.autoblog.com/2018/01/24/ford-profits-hurt-aluminum-costs/?hcid=ab-around-ab-tile-6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Rosadini Posted January 25, 2018 Share Posted January 25, 2018 Interesting-seems like I was just reading that there is a GLUT on aluminum. In fact didn't Alcoa announce plant shutdowns within last 6-12 mos? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted January 25, 2018 Share Posted January 25, 2018 Financial Officer Bob Shanks told analysts at a conference in Detroit last week that while the company benefited from low commodity prices in 2016, rising steel prices were now the main cause of higher costs, followed by aluminum. I think the media are homing in on Aluminum but the bigger issue is steel prices. I wonder if Ford is making the rise in commodities an easy excuse for not doing so well.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theoldwizard Posted January 25, 2018 Share Posted January 25, 2018 I wonder if Ford is making the rise in commodities an easy excuse for not doing so well.. Profit, in the most simplistic terms is the difference between sales and costs. Profits will be "hurt" is cost increase faster that a company can increase sales volume/price or if competition forces sales price to be held or reduced. It is a delicate balance, especially in an industry where some expenses (cost) must be paid LONG before the possibility of any return. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theoldwizard Posted January 25, 2018 Share Posted January 25, 2018 As for aluminum costs, I wonder if the automotive recycling "world" has caught up with the proper technology for recycling the significantly larger percentage of aluminum in "modern" cars. (i.e How many aluminum engine blocks, piston, transmission cases, suspension parts (and soon to be bent sheet metal) are just sitting in scrap yards ?) I have read that there are enough aluminum beverage cans "in the system" that no new aluminum is necessary in the production of new cans. Using recycled aluminum take much less energy to a new aluminum product than compared processing bauxite (aluminum ore) into a finished product. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fordmantpw Posted January 25, 2018 Share Posted January 25, 2018 I thought Ford had negotiated the price for several years into the future to ensure this didnt happen? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyle Posted January 25, 2018 Share Posted January 25, 2018 www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/ford/2018/01/24/ford-annual-earnings/109777880/ Read this in the Detroit News yesterday regarding their profits (not sure how to copy hyperlinks) and only copied a small section-but investors are clearly not happy (and I get the point-they are never happy!) and getting impatient on hearing some specifics of what Hackett's plan is. I don't want to keep beating this guy up but i've not seen one thing that he has done-oh besides the Chicago anti-harassment plant issue!! I sure hope I'm wrong but my instincts are certainly telling me differently........ But Hackett did not detail exactly how he plans to do that, outside of giving six bullet points — things like accountability, efficiency and simplicity — the company will focus on in a “fitness redesign.” The patience of some investors is wearing thin. “This is the time,” Adam Jonas, a Morgan Stanley automotive analyst, told Hackett during an earnings call Wednesday evening. “It’s a fair question to ask when are we going to know these six (fitness redesign initiatives). You’re clearly not wanting to talk about them. That’s a problem, Jim. When are we going to be very clear and transparent about this so that investors and your associates at Ford can kind of rally around the mission? How long do we have to wait?” Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted January 25, 2018 Share Posted January 25, 2018 Jim - please tell us all the gory details of all these new products you're going to launch including where and when so we can feel better and your competitors don't have to guess any more. One of the things he's done is speed up the new Explorer/Aviator project that Fields had delayed. And several other projects. That to me is the most important thing he's done/doing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyle Posted January 25, 2018 Share Posted January 25, 2018 Jim - please tell us all the gory details of all these new products you're going to launch including where and when so we can feel better and your competitors don't have to guess any more. One of the things he's done is speed up the new Explorer/Aviator project that Fields had delayed. And several other projects. That to me is the most important thing he's done/doing. Well in the article it says.....that he is going to share some details---I thought when he was first hired he indicated that he would lay out plans after his first 100 days???? I'm just pointing out that they are getting pushed by wall street and this guy is clearly not pleased with the way info is being shared. Hackett said it won’t be long. He told Jonas and others on the call that he couldn’t provide his plans to those outside the company before laying things out internally. “You just have to stand in line. You have to wait until our people know,” Hackett said. “I’m really happy with the things that we’ve laid, the pipe we’ve kind of laid. I’m not happy at all that we’re not proving to you what that’s going to yield, and (I’m) really confident that you will be happy with us as we bring that forth.” Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted January 25, 2018 Share Posted January 25, 2018 All I’m saying is he will never give them all the detail they want (nor should he). Sometimes it takes more than 3 months to get a good plan especially when things are as screwed up as Fields apparently left them. It sounds like he did make a lot of quick short term changes and that’s the most important thing. They can take a few more months to figure out the long term stuff. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted January 25, 2018 Share Posted January 25, 2018 (edited) Back on commodity price rises, I would contend that rising steel prices have hurt Ford more than Aluminum, F Series can get by with it higher ATPs, actually increased enough to cover the rise in aluminum while Ford's aging Utility and car portfolio was hit badly with increases in the second half of the year. Those platforms are older and heavier than their competition where more weight = more cost to Ford. I would also contend that Hackett has no real plan to speak of, his undisclosed six bullet listed points are in fact still just that with I suspect zero substance behind how to achieve them, as in how does Ford get to those objectives starting from here....Even Mulally would share bullet listed plans and a vision of where and what Ford would be doing, Hackett can't even do that basic.....and that's why people like Adam Jonas are pressing him, he's the CEO not just PR. Edited January 25, 2018 by jpd80 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted January 25, 2018 Share Posted January 25, 2018 Amazing that you think Hackett is an idiot with no plan who will kill Ford without any direct knowledge of what he is actually doing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpd80 Posted January 25, 2018 Share Posted January 25, 2018 (edited) After six months in the job he still cannot share the basics of a plan, not even the bullet points... It's easy to commit Billions to future projects but to transform Ford from current position to his stated goal of 10% return across the company has to be backed up by a strategy to get to there... so where is it? Edited January 25, 2018 by jpd80 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmc523 Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 (edited) Another good question - what will Ford do with the next-gen models to get weight under control? I love the nice solid feel of the products (nice solid thunks for door closing, quiet ride, etc), but it seems like across the board, Fords are quite a bit heavier than the competition. Edited January 29, 2018 by rmc523 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pioneer Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 Amazing that you think Hackett is an idiot with no plan who will kill Ford without any direct knowledge of what he is actually doing. I'm the opposite. I don't think he's an idiot, but I think he has a plan that will kill Ford, and has no idea what he's doing running an automotive company. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasonj80 Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 Another good question - what will Ford do with the next-gen models to get weight under control? I love the nice solid feel of the products (nice solid thanks for door closing, quiet ride, etc), but it seems like across the board, Fords are quite a bit heavier than the competition. A lot of that is that Ford's vehicle platforms are very old. The way they meet new crash tests was just to add on additional weight, the competition that has launched new ground up new platforms that were engineered for those tests are overall lighter. However there is a wild card is that the new Focus/Escape/Explorer might be only a few pounds lighter, but they will come with a higher level of standard equipment and be larger as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twintornados Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 The complaints about share value never change, neither will that fact that as a family owned company (i.e. the Ford family controls the shares through their special stocks) it will never perform like any other wall street stock due to the imbalance of shares. No one can "take over" the company because of the family shares and that ensures that the rest of the stocks will almost always under-perform. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theoldwizard Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 Another good question - what will Ford do with the next-gen models to get weight under control? I love the nice solid feel of the products (nice solid thanks for door closing, quiet ride, etc), but it seems like across the board, Fords are quite a bit heavier than the competition. This has been my OPINION ever since the FWD Explore came in at only a couple hundred pounds under the previous RWD, body-on-frame ! OK, the third row seat became standard (which I still think should be optional), but still I was disappointed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theoldwizard Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 The complaints about share value never change, neither will that fact that as a family owned company (i.e. the Ford family controls the shares through their special stocks) it will never perform like any other wall street stock due to the imbalance of shares. You are going to need a lot more data to support that statement before I would accept it as factual ! I don't see how being a "family" company makes it "under perform". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theoldwizard Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 (edited) This is way off the original topic, but ... IMHO, the most beneficial "transformation" that the company needs is to become more "nimble". Product design/changeover time is KILLING THEM ! Their "bread and butter" is currently SUVs/CUVs and pickups. Someday this will change. Will Ford be "stuck" with vehicle that the public no longer wants or can the engineer the new products and get them into production quickly ? (I think everyone will agree that the Ranger/Bronco are a "long time coming".) Edited January 26, 2018 by theoldwizard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 You are going to need a lot more data to support that statement before I would accept it as factual ! I don't see how being a "family" company makes it "under perform". Simple. The Ford family shares gives them controlling interest in the company regardless of how many shares anyone else owns. A lot of investors don’t like that arrangement 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdegrand Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 I'm the opposite. I don't think he's an idiot, but I think he has a plan that will kill Ford, and has no idea what he's doing running an automotive company. I really think Ford needs to bring Alan back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 I really think Ford needs to bring Alan back. The only way that’s happening is with duct tape and rope in the trunk of a vehicle. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pioneer Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 The only way thats happening is with duct tape and rope in the trunk of a vehicle. I'll get the duct tape and rope. You drive. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fuzzymoomoo Posted January 26, 2018 Share Posted January 26, 2018 I'll get the duct tape and rope. You drive. Ill bring the baseball bat as a persuader 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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