Ford second quarter earnings down to $2.4 billion

Though down from $2.6 billion in the second quarter last year, Ford Motor Company grossed $2.4 billion in the current quarter, beating Wall Street expectations with new small cars like Fiesta and Focus selling well as gas prices rose and price increases generally offset higher material costs.

The bulk of the profits came from North America, where the company grossed $1.9 billion before taxes, which was at the same level with year earlier results in the region.
 
The company could just about break even in the fast growing Asia-Pacific and South Africa regions as it is making huge investments of several hundreds of millions of dollars in new factories and partnerships.

Worldwide, Ford's revenue was up 13.4 per cent to $35.5 billion.

Rival Chrysler Group posted $370 million in losses in the quarter, which the company said was a sign of a healthier balance sheet. Chrysler would have earned $181 million but a $551 million accounting charge for refinancing bailout debts to the US and Canadian government pushed it in losses.

Chrysler's revenue was up 30 per cent during the second quarter to $13.7 billion on increase of sales volume of its cars and trucks in the US, the largest market for the company.

Meanwhile, Ford cut its debt to $14 billion, from the $16.6 billion at the end of the first-quarter, even as it improved its cash position to $22 billion from $21.3 billion at the end of March.