Ford is catching its competitors in key Asian markets and is on target to sell more than 1m vehicles there for the first time this year.
Group vice president for the Asia Pacific region David Schoch told reporters in Detroit that Ford’s sales were up 51% in the first nine months of this year to 647,849 vehicles and the company expects to double its market share in China to nearly 5% by the end of this year.
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He added he expects Asia Pacific to be a major contributor to Ford profits by the middle of the decade while acknowledging that Ford was “slow” to enter Asia. The current growth plan in China wasn’t put in place until four years ago.
Prior to that, Ford was distracted by financial problems and major reorganisation. General Motors has moved much faster in the region and is expected to sell more than 3m vehicles in China alone this year.
Ford is currently building manufacturing hubs in China, India and Thailand and recently relocated its regional headquarters to Shanghai. Those plants will boost the company’s regional capacity of 1.9m units while it is also going ahead with the construction of six new regional assembly plants, including four in China.
That will bring total its capacity in the region to 2.9m vehicles by 2015, far in excess of current sales, but Schoch said: “When you’re in these emerging markets, you have to think long-term. We have very aggressive growth targets.”
Ford is also expanding the number of models it sells and will soon be introducing the Fiesta, Mondeo and Transit van to the region. Sales in the Asia Pacific region are expected to make up 46% of global sales in 2020, up from 41% in 2013. Ford also forecasts that global auto sales will rise to 109m in 2020 from 82m this year.
In addition to China, Ford’s Asia Pacific region includes India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar and the Philippines (where it recently closed its assembly plant).
