ranger070208
On the homepage
I-94 reopens
Out There
Supreme Court
Music
Sales drop clouds the picture at St. Paul Ford plant
Print this story
E-mail this story
Save to del.icio.us
Share on Facebook
Share on Digg
Minnesota business by the numbers
See Minnesota's top earning companies, CEOs and non-profits
Related Content
More from Business
The Ford Ranger didn't do the workers at the St. Paul plant where it's made any favors last month. Sales for the compact Ranger truck fell 33.8 percent to 4,882 units in June compared with the same month a year ago. For the first half, Ford sold 41,303 Rangers, down 3.9 percent.
The Ranger did better than Ford's gas-guzzling F-series trucks, which fell 40.5 percent in June to 38,789 units. Year-to-date F-series sales are down 22.7 percent to 274,713.
Still, the Ranger results disappointed local observers, who are hoping Ford will once again postpone the closing of the Ranger factory.
The plant, which employs roughly 1,060, is scheduled to close in September 2009. Ford officials recently told state officials that they are studying the economics of keeping the plant open a couple of more years. Ranger sales had picked up during the first four months of 2008 thanks to Canadian and U.S. drivers turning to more fuel-efficient trucks in the wake of $4 gas.
But then Ranger sales dropped two months in a row, making the plant's future less certain.
DEE DEPASS
- Study by Medtronic consultant comes under fire
- Pennsylvania swim club accused of racism to ask kids back
- Could Alzheimer's drug be on horizon?
- Dress distress: Airline union wants bigger uniforms
- Twin Cities advisers accused of fraud, mismanagement
- Building on years of experience
- Apartment rents nearly steady
Blog: Patent Pending
U to host big conference
The University of Minnesota will host the annual conference of the Association of University Research Parks in 2010. The conference will focus on ways research parks and innovation can aid the world’s economic recovery. Pretty good timing for the U. Through state-approved bonds, the school is spending $292 million to build four biomedical buidlings on its [...]
Comment on this story | Read all 4 comments | Hide reader comments