Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) President and CEO for its European unit, John Fleming, said on Wednesday that the auto market had weakened during the second quarter after relatively strong demand during the first quarter because of continued scrapping schemes. He added that a higher-portion of fleet sales also caused a profitability drag for automakers in the region.
Fleming told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview at the sidelines of the Automotive News Europe industry conference in Bilbao that the second quarter will be “much weaker” than the first. Fleming said that he expects the annualized sales figures to be 14.5 million for the second quarter, down from 16 million in the first quarter. Fleming says that he expects the European car market to range between 14 million and 15 million in 2010 compared to 16 million in 2009.
Fleming said that sales in the U.K. had held up better than expected but the country’s austerity measures to cut back on its deficit may lead to distortions in sales. He added that both Turkey and Russia offer some opportunity for growth potential.
Ford’s European division posted a 14% decline in year-over-year sales in its 19 core markets in the region. 105,000 vehicles were sold in the European market as several state-backed scrapping schemes ended. During the first five months of the year, Ford Europe’s vehicle sales decreased by 0.8% compared with the same period last year at 598,400 units.
