High Start-Up Costs Eat Into Latam Earnings

The US' second-biggest vehicle maker warned on Tuesday that its losses in South America would grow in the second half of this year.

Ford was also cautious about the outlook for sales of cars and light trucks in the US, prompting concern on Wall Street about the prospects for the country's three big carmakers over the coming months.

Ford's traumas in South America follow the dissolution at the end of last year of AutoLatina, a joint venture formed a decade ago with Germany's Volkswagen.

The companies' decision to go their separate ways left Ford with a weakened presence particu- larly in Brazil, the largest new car market in South Am- erica.

 

Ford warned that its losses in South America in the second half of the year would top the $129 million (