DETROIT – Ford Motor’s U.S. gross sales of recent autos declined 17% throughout the first quarter, together with a 26% slide final month, because the automaker continues to battle a worldwide scarcity of semiconductor chips.

The automaker on Monday reported first quarter gross sales of 432,132 autos, together with 159,328 items in March.

Andrew Frick, Ford vp of gross sales, distribution and vans, mentioned the corporate skilled some constructive indicators for gross sales heading into the spring promoting season.

“Whereas the worldwide semiconductor chip scarcity continues to create challenges, we noticed enchancment in March gross sales, as in-transit stock improved 74% over February. F-Collection had a report 50,000 new retail orders in March, whereas a report 41% of our general retail gross sales got here from beforehand positioned retail orders,” he mentioned in a press release.

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