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CHICAGO: Ford Motor Co. reported a 2.3 percent increase in July auto sales on Monday in a sign that the crippled US auto market was recovering with the aid of a government-funded car trade-in programme.
It was the first month Ford posted a year-over-year gain since November 2007 and the entire industry has hit by nearly a year of double-digit losses, the automaker said.
Ford said retail sales at its core brands - Ford, Lincoln and Mercury - rose nine percent to 118,197 vehicles. Total sales, including Volvo and low-margin fleet sales, rose 2.3 percent to 165,279.
Ford attributed its success to the vastly popular 'Cash for Clunkers' programme, which burned through one billion dollars in its first week after spurring the sale of about 200,000 vehicles.
"Our products, our dealers and our advance preparation enabled us to leverage the programme and drive traffic and sales to another level," said Ken Czubay, Ford vice president, US Marketing, Sales and Service.
"In addition, we achieved a sales increase even though we decreased incentive spending in an increasingly competitive environment."
The programme got fresh backing from US House of Representatives on Friday, when lawmakers voted for a two-billion dollar funding boost for the programme but it must now gain approval from the Senate.
The sales gain marks the latest in a slew of more optimistic data from Ford, the only member of the Detroit Three automakers to have avoided bankruptcy.
On July 23 announced it had swung back into profitability in the second quarter.
The firm posted a net profit of 2.3 billion dollars between April and June, due to cost cutting and a 3.4 billion dollar one-off debt restructuring.
That compared with a whopping 8.7 billion dollar loss in the same period a year ago.
The automaker said it had managed to increase its market share in all regions in the second quarter, including a two point gain to 16.4 percent of the key US market. - AFP/de
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