Ford says U.S. sales weaken further

By Poornima Gupta and Kevin Krolicki

DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor said on Friday it would slash output and delay a new version of its top-selling F-150 pickup truck due to a deepening slump in U.S. sales it warned would weigh on results this year and next.

Ford said it would post a deeper loss for its car business this year and warned it would be difficult to avoid a loss in 2009. That was a weaker outlook than Ford offered just last month when it abandoned a long-held goal of returning to profit by next year in the face of record gas prices and plummeting sales for trucks and SUVs.

The warning weighed on Ford stock and bonds. Ford shares dropped 7 percent on the New York Stock Exchange.

The risk of continued losses raises the prospect Ford could be forced to raise liquidity, possibly through a deal with billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, who owns almost 6.5 percent of Ford and has offered more capital for its restructuring.

"This is a tough situation," said David Healy, an analyst with Burnham Securities. "They are probably going to do more financing. They might even take money from Kerkorian."

The struggling No. 2 U.S. carmaker raised $23.5 billion (11.9 billion pounds) in 2006 by pledging almost all of its assets, including the familiar Ford blue-oval logo, as collateral. But that financing was based on a turnaround plan the automaker now says has been thrown off track by the steep downturn in the U.S. market.

LOWERS FORECAST

Ford lowered its forecast for industrywide U.S. auto sales this year to a range of 14.7 million to 15.2 million vehicles, including medium and heavy-duty trucks. That was down from Ford's already reduced forecast of 15 million to 15.4 million.