Slowing home sales bode poorly for pickup trucks

DETROIT (Reuters) - The cooling U.S. housing market could weigh on sales of pickup trucks, which are popular with contractors for their size and power and with automakers for the fat profit margins they allow.

That was the word from top industry executives at the Reuters Autos Summit in Detroit on Monday.

"Pickup trucks correlate historically pretty well to construction trends, so the problems that home builders are having now very likely will have at least some impact on that segment," said Wilbur Ross, a financier who has bought portions of some struggling auto parts companies through his International Automotive Components Group.

Francisco Codina, sales and marketing chief for North America at Ford Motor Co. (F.N: Quote, Profile, Research), said the U.S. automaker has seen that correlation hold up over time.

"It affects more of the super-duty (trucks) than the light-duty," Codina said. "If you think about who's buying trucks ... you can track it, and we have tracked it."

Still, he said the slowing housing market doesn't yet seem to have taken a toll on consumer auto purchases.

Major U.S. home builders, including Lennar Corp. (LEN.N: Quote, Profile, Research), Beazer Homes USA Inc. (BZH.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and KB Home (KBH.N: Quote, Profile, Research) this month have cut their profit forecasts, citing the deteriorating housing market.