Ford has said that it is expecting worldwide sales to increase by 50% by mid-decade to about 8m vehicles a year with growth mainly in the Asia-Pacific region.
The upbeat forecast also suggests that small vehicles will represent about 55% of Ford’s total vehicle sales by 2020, with nearly one-third of sales in 2020 coming from Asia-Pacific and Africa due to significant growth, the automaker said.
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“Ford is a growing company operating in a growing global automotive market,” Ford president and CEO Alan Mulally. “Through our One Ford plan, we are increasing our product investments to meet this growing demand with a full family of best-in-class products.”
Ford expects global automotive operating margins to increase to 8-9% from 6.1% in 2010. North America operating margin at mid-decade is expected to be in the 8-10% range.
Ford also said that it expects to achieve investment grade in the near-term and resume paying dividends as appropriate thereafter.
The company said that its targets will be achieved by continuing to make progress on its One Ford strategic plan, which includes accelerating the development of new products and restructuring to operate profitably at the current demand and changing model mix. At the same time, Ford said it will pursue profitable growth opportunities in emerging markets by creating lower-priced versions of global vehicles that offer a US$1,000 to US$2,000 cost reduction depending on vehicle size and systems.
By 2014, more than 140% of Ford’s global product portfolio will be new or significantly refreshed compared with 2009, according to the company.
Ford anticipates industry volumes to grow to the 95m to 100m range by 2015, compared to 74m in 2010. Ford also expects fuel prices and commodity costs generally will continue to increase as world economies continue to recover.
