In North America, Ford’s largest and most important region, pretax profit was $1.9 billion, down $200 million from a year earlier. Its margin in North America fell to 7.8 percent from 8.9 percent. Mr. Shanks said North American operations had been hurt by rising costs for key commodities such as steel and aluminum. The company expects its profit margin in North America to rise to 10 percent by 2020, Mr. Shanks said. Rather than maintain two dealership networks selling separate lines of Ford vehicles, its China dealers will now sell all Ford products available in the country.

Source: New York Times April 25, 2018 20:26 UTC