low 18.6 per cent last year, while Japanese competitors Toyota and Honda made further inroads. Under the turnaround plan, North American manufacturing capacity will be reduced by 1.2 million units, or 26 percent, by 2008, Ford said at the company's headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan. Seven of the plant closings are slated by 2008, the company said. Ford currently has some 122,000 North American workers. CEO Ford said that by failing to slash North American overcapacity, the company has pushed out too many cars that people don't want to buy - a problem Ford shares with U.S. rival General Motors Corp., the world's largest automaker. "That's why we must reduce capacity," Ford told a news conference. The company said pretax automotive losses in North America narrowed to 143 million dollars in the fourth quarter from 470 million dollars a year earlier. Overall, the company posted a fourth-quarter profit of 124 million dollars, up from 104 million dollars a year earlier.
