NEWS DESK WHAT’S NEW IN MANUFACTURING n Ford, Caterpillar Expect Tougher 2017 F
ord Motor Co. and Caterpillar Inc. are forecasting tough- er fi nancial conditions this year. The companies issued their forecasts separately
in January while reporting fourth-quarter and year-end fi nancial results.
way it measures pension obligations and $199 million in costs related to canceling a planned factory in Mexico. Caterpillar (Peoria, IL), a maker of earth-moving ma- chines and other heavy-duty equipment, had full-year ad- justed profi t, which excludes some costs of $3.42 a share, down from 2015’s $5.35. The company forecast 2017’s adjusted profi t to slide to about $2.90 a share. Caterpillar also estimates its 2017 revenue will be $36 billion to $39 billion, compared with 2016’s $38.5 billion.
Caterpillar has been affected by a
Caterpillar hydraulic shovel digging. The company has been affected by lower demand for mining and construction.
Ford (Dearborn, MI) had a pretax profi t of $10.4 billion, down $425 million from 2015. It was still Ford’s second- best pretax profi t. However, the automaker said its 2017 pretax profi t won’t match 2016 levels because of softening results in North Amer- ica and Europe. North America generated $9 billion in pretax profi t last year while Europe posted a $1.2 billion pretax profi t.
strong dollar, which makes US-pro- duced goods more expensive in over- seas markets. The company also has felt the impact of weakening markets for mining and construction equipment. Caterpillar said in a statement there may be “early indications of modest re- covery in several of our businesses.” But the company also said “the availability of used equipment” in construction is a drag on its sales. The company reported an annual
loss of $67 million, or 11 cents a share, compared with a 2015 profi t of $2.5 billion, or $4.18. Contributing to the loss were various one-time costs Caterpillar incurred as it cut jobs and streamlined operations. In the fourth quarter alone, Caterpillar’s one-time charg- es included $985 million for pension accounting changes, $595 million to write down the value of its surface mining
INSIDE: Manufacturing reaches its strongest level in two years in January. Ford posted a full-year profi t of $4.6 billion, or $1.15 a
share, down from $7.37 billion, or $1.84 in 2015. The company posted a fourth-quarter loss of $783 million, which included one-time costs of $3.2 billion. That included almost $3 billion for an accounting change for the
and technology unit and $395 million in restructuring costs. The company has been closing plants and paring jobs as it tries to reduce manufacturing expenses. Caterpillar cut 12,300 jobs globally last year to a total of 106,400. —Senior Editor Bill Koenig
March 2017 |
AdvancedManufacturing.org 17
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92
