NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Ford Motor reported that its ongoing losses soared in the fourth quarter, but the company reiterated it still does not need the federal bailout already received by its two U.S. rivals.

Ford reported a net loss of $5.9 billion, or $2.46 a share, up from a loss of $2.8 billion in the same quarter a year ago.

For the full year, Ford lost $14.6 billion, and the company has now lost nearly $30 billion over the past three years.

Excluding special items, losses were $3.3 billion, or $1.37 a share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were forecasting a loss of $1.30 a share on this basis.

Ford’s automotive operations reported a loss in every region but South America during the fourth quarter. Worldwide vehicle sales plunged 31% from a year ago, to 1.1 million. Total sales dropped 36%, to $29.2 billion, but they did top Wall Street’s consensus estimate of $27 billion.

Separately, the company’s Ford Credit arm confirmed that it was eliminating 1,200 jobs, or about 20% of its staff, due to lower sales. In addition to suffering from weak demand for vehicles, Ford also sold its Jaguar, Land Rover and Mazda brands last year.

Ford (F, Fortune 500) burned through $5.5 billion in cash during the quarter. That left the company with gross cash of $13.4 billion as of the end of 2008.

The company said it will burn through cash again this year, but Ford added that it does not anticipate needing to receive federal help “barring a significantly deeper economic downturn or a significant industry event, such as the bankruptcy of a major competitor that causes disruption to the company’s supply base, dealers or creditors.”

Instead, Ford said it will draw on its available credit lines to receive an additional $10.1 billion in cash on Feb. 3.

“Ford went to the credit markets two years ago when they were functioning normally and obtained the funding necessary — including our credit lines — to support our product transformation and restructuring,” said Ford CEO Alan Mulally in a statement.

“Given the instability of the capital markets with the uncertain state of the global economy, we believe it is prudent to draw these credit facilities at this time,” Mulally added.

Ford’s access to credit and cash on hand puts it in far better financial position than General Motors (GM, Fortune 500) and Chrysler LLC, who both needed loans from the federal government to avoid falling below the minimum cash level they needed to continue operations.

Ford had asked for a $9 billion line of credit from Congress at the same time GM and Chrysler were appealing for help last month. Congress did not approve such financial assistance, forcing the Treasury Department to step in and give the loans to GM and Chrysler late last year.

But the company did announce a slightly more conservative sales target for 2009, however. When it presented its turnaround plan to Congress in December, Ford said it expected 2009 U.S. industrywide sales of about 12.5 million vehicles, including medium and heavy duty trucks. On Thursday, the company said it now anticipates sales of between 11.5 million to 12.5 million vehicles this year.

The company announced it had reached an agreement with the United Auto Workers union to eliminate the jobs bank, which guarantees nearly full pay for UAW members who lose their jobs.

Ford said management and the union are working on details of implementing that agreement. GM announced a similar deal Wednesday, and there were reports Monday that Chrysler had also reached such a deal with the UAW.

SOURCE: MONEY@CNN

As President Barack Obama rides about Washington in his new custom-made Cadillac, he should remember that the men and women who furnished his stylish ride need to hear from him, and soon.

The domestic auto industry’s outlook is brightened only modestly by Chrysler’s announced partnering with Italian automaker Fiat. It’s a reasonable move for Chrysler, offering an opportunity to diminish the company’s historical reliance on minivans and Jeeps. Fiat’s strength in small cars and high-end nameplates will bring balance in exchange for a 35% stake in Chrysler.

But Fiat’s reluctance to invest the first euro of its own money in Chrysler is telling. So is the unhappy history of Fiat’s short-lived partnership with GM, which began with a similar vision of geographic and segment synergy.

Chrysler’s desperate need for cash persists, and some doomsayers suggest its alliance with Fiat could even exacerbate that predicament by triggering a repayment provision in the terms of its emergency loan from Uncle Sam. In any event, the Fiat partnership does nothing to address Chrysler’s immediate problems.

Equally ominous is UAW President Ron Gettelfinger’s warning that it will be “almost impossible” for the Big Three to meet the Feb. 17 deadline the Bush administration ordained for the delivery of detailed restructuring plans. The new administration shouldn’t wait three weeks to find out if this is more than hyperbole.

Appointing a car czar with broad, proactive authority should be a priority on par with tackling the foreclosure crisis. It’s also consistent with the new president’s commitment to fiscal transparency and more energy-efficient automobiles.

In his inaugural address, Obama warned that “our time of putting off unpleasant decisions … has surely passed.” That is doubly true in the auto industry, and the new administration should seize the initiative now.

SOURCE: Freep.com

TWINSBURG, Ohio - A stamping plant near Cleveland is the Ohio auto factory most likely to feel the reverberations of a possible merger of General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC.

The companies continued Tuesday to discuss a potential merger amid an economic downturn, weak auto sales and hardships for the companies.

The Twinsburg stamping plant is one of four Chrysler factories that employ a total of about 5,000 in the state. General Motors has nine factories in Ohio that employ about 11,700.

The future of the Twinsburg site under different ownership is cloudy, because the current trend in automobile manufacturing is to integrate stamping plants with vehicle assembly plants, said Ned Hill, professor of economic development at Cleveland State University.

Chrysler is the largest employer in Twinsburg, providing 1,000 jobs and 18 percent of the tax base in the small city about 20 miles southeast of Cleveland.

Mayor Katherine Procop said she hopes the stamping plant, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year and has been upgraded with modern technology, will remain viable. The plant makes parts for Chrysler’s minivans, trucks and other vehicles.

“They are an important corporation here,” Procop said. “It should continue to have a long future here.”

Analysts have said government funding might be needed to help spark a combination of Chrysler and GM because of difficult economic conditions and frozen credit markets.

A GM acquisition of Chrysler could cost 30,000 or more Chrysler jobs because GM would be forced to eliminate duplication and may be interested only in Chrysler’s minivans and the Jeep brand, industry analysts have said.

“No matter what happens, south Ontario (Canada) and Michigan will be in a world of hurt,” said Ned Hill, professor of economic development at Cleveland State University. Those areas have Chrysler and GM plants near each other making competing products.

The iconic Jeep brand needs an injection of new models but likely will be manufactured no matter what happens to Chrysler, Hill said. That bodes well for the Toledo area, where there is a Jeep factory, he said.

Chrysler employs about 49,000 in the U.S. and has roughly 125,000 pensioners. GM has 177,000 U.S. workers and around 500,000 people receiving pensions.

For each auto manufacturing job, there are at least seven jobs with parts makers and other support companies, according to the Center for Automotive Research in Michigan.

Hill said it would be difficult and costly for GM to downsize Chrysler’s extensive dealer network.

SOURCE: The Chicago Tribune