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High-flying Ford eyeing Asia

DETROIT, Michigan - Ford, with its turnaround in North America essentially finished, is looking to the next act in its comeback by building its business in Asian markets.

Ford chief executive officer Alan Mulally has said the automaker plans to grow global sales by 50% through the next four years with a strong push into China and India.

"We are rapidly making the transition from fixing the fundamentals of our business to delivering profitable growth in all our operations," he added in the company's recent annual report. "To do this we are investing in an unprecedented number of new products and in technology worldwide."

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Ford was the only major US automaker to survive the 2008 downturn without government financial assistance though its rating was downgraded to junk status after it mortgaged all its assets to fund a huge restructuring. However the No.2 US automaker has revitalised its model range and business practices faster than its Detroit rivals.

In Asia, Ford will have to attack stiff competition from VW, GM and Toyota, each of which has a large piece of the Asian market - especially in China where it remains a minor player - the group has less than 10% of the passenger and one percent of the commercial market there.

Meanwhile, Ford's financial strength continues to grow. It doubled its annual profit to $6.6-billion in 2010 and reached $2.6-billion in the first quarter of 2011 - it's most since 1998 and former Ford SA boss but now Ford's chief financial officer, Lewis Booth said the stream of strong earnings had put the automaker in a position to pay off outstanding debts.

A better rating, he said, would quickly follow.
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