US car maker Ford today said that its profits jumped nearly 70% in the third quarter, boosted in part by rebounding sales in North America.
Ford Motor Company posted a net income of $1.7 billion, or 43 cents per share, in the months from July to September, up $690m a year ago.
Excluding special items, the company reported pre-tax operating profit rose for a fifth consecutive quarter, to $2.1 billion, or 48 cents per share. That was an improvement of $1.1 billion from the same time last year.
Revenue was $29 billion, a decline of $1.3 billion from the same time a year ago.
Ford, the only big US car maker that did not take a government bailout during the financial crisis, repeated it was on track to gain market share in the US for a second year in a row. That would mark the first time since 1993 the automaker would have back-to-back annual increases.
The Ford North America division said it had third-quarter pre-tax operating profit of $1.6 billion, up $1.3 billion a year earlier.
'Delivering world-class products and aggressively restructuring our business has enabled us to profitably grow even at low industry volumes in key regions,' Ford president and chief executive Alan Mulally said.
'The key drivers for improvement in 2011 will be our growing product strength, a gradually strengthening economy and an unrelenting focus on improving the competitiveness of all our operations,' he added.
