Ford Posts $7.4-Billion Loss for ’92 : Earnings: It’s the biggest corporate deficit ever. But the record is likely to last only a day.

Ford Motor Co. on Wednesday posted the biggest loss ever recorded by a U.S. corporation--a $7.4-billion deficit attributable largely to a one-time charge for future retiree health benefits--but the auto maker said its operating results continued to improve.

Ford’s unenviable ranking as the ultimate corporate loser won’t last long, however. General Motors today is expected to report a $23-billion loss for 1992, also because of a charge for long-term health benefits required by new accounting rules.

On a per-share basis, Ford’s loss for the year came to $15.61. On the New York Stock Exchange, Ford closed Wednesday at $49.75, up 87.5 cents for the day.

Excluding one-time charges, Ford lost $502 million, or $1.46 per share, in 1992, down from $2.2 billion, or $4.79 per share, in 1991. On an operating basis, the company broke even for the year; the $502 million loss reflected one year’s worth of expenses for retiree health care under the new rules.

“No matter how you slice it, it was a big improvement in operating results,” said David N. McCammon, Ford’s treasurer and vice president of finance.

Ford gained ground in the United States, he said: It lost $405 million, excluding the one-time accounting charges--a vast improvement over the loss of $2.2 billion in 1991. But the company continued to struggle in Europe, McCammon said.

In the fourth quarter, the company lost $840 million, or $1.82 per share, including $524 million in restructuring and benefits charges. Ford lost $476 million, or $1.03 per share, during the same period a year earlier.

The company said it was “cautiously optimistic” about 1993.

“Many of the problems that affected Ford in 1992 are continuing into 1993--weak economies, intense competition and excess industry capacity,” Ford Chairman Harold A. (Red) Poling said in a statement.

Nonetheless, Poling said that the company’s continuing cost reduction efforts, new product introductions and a gradual national economic recovery provided a foundation to return the auto maker to profitability.

Ford opted to take a one-time charge of $7.5 billion to recognize the cost of future retiree benefits.

All companies must recognize such expenses--either all at once or over 20 years--under recently adopted accounting standards.

The charge was partially offset by a one-time, $657-million credit relating to Ford’s accounting for income taxes.

The company’s sales were $100.1 billion in 1992, up $11.8 billion from 1991 levels. The company sold 5.8 million vehicles, up 8% from the previous year, and boosted its share of the U.S. car and truck markets.

Still, some analysts were concerned about Ford’s continued losses in the U.S. market.

They noted that Chrysler last week reported fourth-quarter earnings of $356 million, contributing to an annual profit totaling $723 million.

GM also may show a small profit in the final three months of the year.

“I find it rather amazing that Ford could have so many achievements, especially in the U.S. market, and do so badly on the bottom line,” said Maryann Keller, an analyst for Furman Selz Inc. in New York.

Keller said she suspected that Ford was beginning to pay for a relative lack of spending on new product development in the second half of the 1980s.

Others, however, said that with the huge accounting charge for health benefits, Ford used the final quarter to clear the deck of bad news.

“I think they will be back in the black to stay in the first quarter,” said David Healy, an analyst with S.G. Warburg Securities.