Ford Philippines eyes Southeast Asian export growth

MANILA, Philippines - Ford group Philippines is looking at selling more cars abroad this year as it takes advantage of rising demand from Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam. The company expects to export 10,000 cars to the Southeast Asian markets this year — 20% higher than a year earlier — and bring the total to 60,000 since its export program started six years ago. In the first quarter, the local arm of US-based Ford Motor Company sold 3,000 vehicles abroad, with total exports reaching 53,000 worth $674 million over the six-year period. Export growth would likely come from the Ford Focus and Escape and Mazda 3, Ford President Richard C. Baker said Tuesday. The company also seeks to increase local market share to about 5% by selling close to 8,000 new vehicles. Last year, Ford sold 7,486 units locally, up by 8.38% from 6,907 in 2006. Ford Philippines exports Focus, Escape, Mazda 3 and Mazda Tribute to Southeast Asian markets Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam. "We’re going to continue to see growth in exports in the following years. We see export volumes increasing," Mr. Baker said. The Philippines, he said, remains an important part of the company’s business strategy in Asia. The company earlier spent $20 million for a flexible fuel plant in the Philippines to produce flexible fuel vehicle engines for the domestic and export markets. A flexible fuel vehicle is an automobile that can alternate between two or more sources of fuel such as gasoline or ethanol mixtures. Many flexible fuel vehicles can accept a mixture up to 85% ethanol or up to 85% methanol and 15% gasoline. The fuel mixture is automatically detected by one or more sensors, and once detected, the electric control unit tunes the timing of spark plugs and fuel injectors so that the fuel will burn cleanly in the vehicle’s internal combustion engine. Mr. Baker said the Asia-Pacific and African regions would for the most part drive Ford Motor Company’s future growth over the next seven to 10 years. Ford has invested more than $2.5 billion in these regions since 2006. He also said Ford is speeding up investments in smaller, fuel-efficient vehicles. The company plans to launch environment-friendly Ford Fiesta in Asia and the Americas between 2008 and 2010. "More and more, we are making innovative, fuel-efficient, environment-friendly and safe cars that people want and value," he said. He also cited EcoBoost, a high-volume engine technology that uses gasoline turbo-charged direct-injection technology for up to 20% better fuel economy, 15% fewer carbon dioxide emissions and better driving performance against larger displacement engines. He said EcoBoost would be used by a range of global vehicles from small cars to large trucks. Data showed Ford’s export sales were halved in 2006 to 6,667 vehicles from 13,352 in 2005. Domestic sales also suffered, going down by 17% to 6,907. Data for 2007 were unavailable. Ford is the only car assembler in the Philippines that sells its products abroad. The local automotive industry sold 14.8% more vehicles at 39,981 in the first four months this year amid a generally strong economy. Japan’s Toyota Motor Philippines Corp., which cornered an estimated 35.4% of the Philippine market, posted the highest sales at 14,160 units. Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corp. came in next, having sold 5,345 units with a market share of 13.4%. Honda Cars Philippines, Inc. sold 5,269 units, cornering about 13.2% of the local market. — Bernardette S. Sto. Domingo, BusinessWorld