Ford says Q3 pre-tax profit to be better than Q2 

(MENAFN - AFP) US auto giant Ford said Thursday that pre-tax profits in the third quarter were likely to be stronger then the level achieved in the second quarter despite announcing thousands of job cuts.

Speaking in a telephone conference call on Ford's planned shake-up of its loss-making European operations, the carmaker's finance chief Bob Shanks said that for the group as a whole "third quarter 2012 pre-tax profit and earnings per share are better than second quarter 2012, despite the substantial loss in Europe."

In the second quarter, Ford booked pre-tax profit of 1.8 billion.

The group is scheduled to announce its full third-quarter financial results on Tuesday next week.

Earlier, Ford unveiled plans to shut down two facilities in Britain -- an assembly plant in Southampton and stamping and tooling operations at Dagenham -- plus a factory in Genk, Belgium, with the loss of 5,700 jobs in all.

The move is part of a massive shake-up of Ford's European operations aimed at steering them back to profit amid falling demand in the region.

The group's European operations are expected to run up a loss in excess of 1.5 billion this year, Ford said.

The reorganisation is expected to reduce vehicle assembly capacity by 18 percent or 355,000 units and yield gross annual savings of 450-500 million.