The COVID-19 pandemic has slammed Ford Motor Company’s bottom line.
Company officials announced on Tuesday Ford lost $2 billion in the first quarter of the year. Ford blamed the loss largely on the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.
The automaker said Tuesday that its revenue from January through March fell nearly 15% to $34.3 billion as most of its factories were shut down for the final week of the quarter.
Ford’s Chief Financial Officer Tim Stone expects the automaker will take an even bigger hit in the second quarter of 2020.
“As industry volumes continue to be down significantly, in every region year over year, as a result we believe the second quarter...will be a loss of more than $5 billion,” says Stone. “The recovery actions we’ve taken and are working on are in the billions, but we know we’ll not be able to recover everything or make up all the lost volume.”
Earlier this month, the Dearborn, Michigan company floated $8 billion in bonds in an effort to prepare for the downturn.
Ford plans to begin a phased restart of auto production in the coming weeks in Europe.
