Comparing the current situation to the 2008-2009 financial crisis, Chief Executive Jim Hackett said Ford was putting in place safeguards to protect its business.
Ford has come under fire from some analysts on Wall Street for moving too slowly to cut costs and restructure its business.
At the end of last year, it had booked only $3.7 billion of the projected $11 billion in charges it previously said it would take in its global restructuring.
Since then, the outbreak has spread globally, leading Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler on Wednesday to announce the shutdown of their North American plants.
— Reuters
PHARMACEUTICALS
Tylenol production is up as demand surges
Johnson & Johnson is running its Tylenol manufacturing at maximum capacity in North America to meet surging demand because of the fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak, a top executive said Thursday.
The company said it is stepping up its manufacturing of the drug globally.
Demand rose two to four times normal levels in the last three weeks, hitting its highest point over the past week, Kathleen Widmer, group chairman for North America of Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health, said in an interview.
Demand for drugs containing Tylenol’s main ingredient, known as paracetamol or acetaminophen, has soared in particular after France’s health minister suggested that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen could worsen covid-19. However, the World Health Organization said there is no data currently to back that up and has not recommended that people stop using NSAIDs.
Before this latest surge, demand already was high as consumers stocked up on the drug ahead of potential quarantines.
J&J is not experiencing any shortages of its raw materials for Tylenol, and it has taken steps including adding crews and increasing the use of equipment and capacity in plants in Puerto Rico and Pennsylvania where the drug is produced.
— Reuters
Also in Business
U.S. long-term mortgage rates climbed this week in a whipsawing market amid deepening anxiety over devastation to the economy from the coronavirus pandemic. Home loan rates had hit all-time lows two weeks ago. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year loan jumped to 3.65 percent this week from 3.36 percent last week. Freddie Mac said the short-term rise was due to mortgage lenders increasing prices to deal with booming demand for refinancing into loans at historically low rates.
Britain’s Burberry said sales in the final weeks of March would plunge by up to 80 percent as the impact of the coronavirus already seen in China spread to Europe and the United States, causing stores to close and luxury shopping to dry up. The British brand said like-for-like sales in the final weeks of its financial year to March 28 would be down 70 percent to 80 percent, and as a result fourth-quarter sales would be 30 percent lower. Burberry saw the early impact of the coronavirus crisis in February.
Alibaba Group is offering Europe’s embattled health systems a cloud-based coronavirus diagnostic tool it says it has successfully tried in China’s hospitals. Alibaba’s efforts come as China and its top technology companies step up their outreach in Europe, showcasing virus-diagnosis and analysis tools. Telecom giant Huawei Technologies said it offered Italian hospitals videoconferencing and wireless connectivity capabilities. Internet search engine Baidu is proposing an algorithm to analyze the virus’s biological structure.
Coming today
10 a.m.: National Association of Realtors releases existing-home sales for February.
— From news services