F-150 sales in August vindicate Ford's pickup overhaul - Detroit Free Press
It has taken a year, but inventories of the F-150 are approaching normal levels and Ford was rewarded with a 5% sales increase in F-Series sales in August, which contributed to a 6% hike in overall sales. The results underscore two things: the importance of the truck to Ford’s overall sales in the U. S. and perhaps vindication of a calculated gamble to switch to aluminum for a truck that had a steel body for more than seven decades. sales chief Mark LaNeve said Tuesday that sales of 71,332 last month made it the best August for the F-Series since 2006 and exceeding 70,000 in sales has happened only seven times in the last eight or nine years. 25, 2014, that Ford began implementing a detailed demolition plan that started by closing the Dearborn Truck assembly plant as part of a calculated gamble to switch to an aluminum body for a truck that had been made of steel for a century. Ford invested $359 million to transform Dearborn Truck and an additional $484 million at the adjacent Diversified and Stamping facilities. Another $1. 1 billion was spent at the Kansas City, Mo. , plant that makes the F-150 and Transit commercial van. After losing production at the Dearborn plant in the fourth quarter and Kansas City in the new year, Ford earned $924 million in the first quarter, down almost 7% from the previous year. Source: www.freep.com
