June 15, 2009 - Bill Ford - National Summit, Detroit MI

Ford nimble without government oversight: chairman

Ford Motor Co has found advantages in going without the federal emergency aid that supports its domestic rivals, although the long-term implications of the government intervention are unclear, Ford Chairman Bill Ford said on Monday.

"We don't know what the implications are going to be, but one thing is for sure, I like our position," Ford told reporters on the sidelines of the National Summit in Detroit.

An uncontrolled General Motors Corp or Chrysler bankruptcy would have had "catastrophic" consequences for the auto sector and other industries, he said.

Chrysler filed for bankruptcy on April 30 and completed a buyout to a company led by Italy's Fiat SpA earlier in June. GM filed for bankruptcy on June 1 and hopes to complete a similar sale process by the end of August.

Both automakers had been supported by emergency U.S. government loans since the start of 2009, received additional support to enter bankruptcy and had, or will have, government support for their exit strategies.

"We can make quick decisions, we can make the long-term decisions and we can continue to work the plan we have in place with no distraction," Ford said. "The ability to do that with minimal distraction and to operate nimbly and efficiently and really focus on the customer ... does give us an advantage."

Ford said the Obama administration and its auto task force acted responsibly to address the automakers and the supply base, where a meltdown would have had a widespread impact on U.S. and foreign-based automakers alike, he said.

The longer-term implications of the intervention are uncertain and the process must remain clear, Ford said.

"I think it's important we do have transparency though with the government in terms of the decision-making process at General Motors and to a lesser extent at Chrysler so that we understand -- and I don't mean we at Ford but the American people understand -- how decisions are being made," Ford said.

"The government has indicated they really don't want to be in this forever and I think that's a healthy indication," Ford said, but added that he expected the government's ownership of GM to continue for "some time."

The No. 2 U.S.-based automaker Ford has posted losses of more than $30 billion over the last three years, but has said it has sufficient liquidity to fund its restructuring and has targeted a return to profitability in 2011.

The automaker also expects U.S. auto industry sales, which have fallen to the lowest levels since the early 1980s, to begin to recover in the second half of 2009.

Bill Ford said there were "some early signs" that U.S. auto industry sales were stabilizing, though at very low levels.

In an opening address at the National Summit, he said the dramatic global economic slowdown and the deep recession in the United States have increased the urgency for a national dialogue on the economy.

The shock waves have been felt harder in Detroit than anywhere else in the United States, but the summit is directed at national issues, rather than at Detroit or the auto industry, he said.

"Detroit is the front line of global competition, we are also on the fault line of the economic earthquake that has rocked our nation," Ford said.

Original Story - Reuters

Additional Story From National Summit

Ford wants 'transparency' with fed intervention in autos

Ford Motor Co. Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. said Monday that government intervention has taken the automobile industry into uncharted waters and called for "transparency" in Washington's management of rival General Motors Corp.

But he also said the industry only has a future if the government plays a more active role in it.

"There are issues that we just don't have answers to yet in terms of government ownership in our industry and what that's going to mean," Ford told reporters at the National Summit, a three-day gathering of the nation's economic, educational and business leaders.

"We don't know what the implications are going to be, but one thing's for sure: I like our position."

Ford is the only U.S. automaker that has not filed for bankruptcy, has not accepted a taxpayer bailout and is not subject to government control.

"We can make quick decisions, we can make long-term decisions and we can continue to work the plan we have in place with minimal distraction," Ford said.

"(It) does give us an advantage. Now, what are the longer term implications? I don't know. And I think it's important that we do have transparency, though, with the government in terms of the decision-making process at General Motors and, I guess to a lesser extent, at Chrysler."

The federal government now owns a chunk of Chrysler Group LLC, which it helped marry off to Italy's Fiat SpA. U.S. taxpayers will hold a majority stake in GM when it emerges from bankruptcy. Washington has forced both companies to close factories, shed dealerships and restructure their debt.

Backing the bailout

Ford said the government's stated position that it wants to get out of the automobile business as quickly as possible is the right one, but he questioned how and when that would happen.

"The government's ownership of GM is going to be there for some time," he said.

At the same time, Ford said he and his company supported the government's decision to bail out GM and Chrysler because their collapse would have brought down the entire automotive supply base in the United States. And he warned that the future of the industry remains in jeopardy if Washington does not play a more active role in setting a national industrial policy.

Many of the speakers on the first day of the summit echoed those sentiments. Executives such as Citigroup Inc. chief Vikram Pandit and ArvinMeritor Inc. head Charles McClure talked about the need for more government cooperation and coordination with U.S. businesses.

"There's a recognition that our global competition is with not only companies, but with the governments that support those companies," U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Detroit, told one of the summit's town hall meetings on manufacturing.

Many speakers envision a role for government in coordinating business expansion, improving education and training and upgrading the national infrastructure, while also decrying the high level of corporate taxes and red tape in the United States.

Event downsized

Like American manufacturing, the National Summit is a bit of a victim of the economic collapse. Originally planned for 5,000 at Ford Field, the downsized summit at the Marriot Renaissance Center aimed to draw 1,500 and fell $350,000 short of covering its costs.

Attendance at the opening session put the ballroom at about two-thirds full, with a total of about 1,600 people registering, said Beth Chappell, CEO of the Detroit Economic Club, which organized the event. Most came from southeast Michigan.

"I was blown away by the conversations today," Chappell said after the first day concluded.

Original Story - Detroit News