Ford Sees Profit Return in China by Building Models Locally
- Most Lincoln models to be built in world’s largest auto market
- Collapse in China is Ford’s most profound reversal of fortune
Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
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Ford Motor Co. will help turn around its money-losing Chinese operations “a lot” once it begins building Lincoln models there later this year and the Ford Explorer sport utility vehicle next year, the company’s chief financial officer said Wednesday.
“It’s a huge, huge improvement in terms of the business model for each one those” models built in China, Bob Shanks, who’s retiring as CFO June 1, said at the Goldman Sachs Industrials Conference in New York, where he appeared with incoming CFO Tim Stone. “Material costs are lower in China, labor is lower in China, we can be closer to the market in terms of consumer demand.”