CEO Says Ford Outlook Cut Decided in Last Few Days

DETROIT May 22, 2008; David Bailey writing for Reuters reported that Ford Motor Co only made its decision to pull back on its 2009 profit forecast in the past few days as it became clear there had been a structural deterioration in demand for large trucks and sport utility vehicles, Chief Executive Alan Mulally said on Thursday.

"We have been looking at it really intently since the first-quarter announcement, but in the last couple of days it was clear to us that it was time to assume that going forward we had a more permanent shift, a structural change," Mulally told reporters.

He said at an SAE dinner in Detroit that Ford would gather information before providing an update at its second-quarter results, and declined to say whether the automaker would set another target date for a return to profitability.

"We need to gather some more data about the marketplace, especially in the United States," Mulally said. "We need to assess what it is going to take for us to shift our production where we take large trucks and SUVs down and accelerate to the maximum extent possible our production of the smaller and medium-size cars and utilities."

Mulally said the U.S. industry share of sales of large pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles had declined every week since the start of April and dropped sharply just in the last few weeks.

At the same time, company figures showed a corresponding increase in gasoline prices.

Editing for Reuters by Gary Hill and Braden Reddall