DEARBORN - The reverberations of last month's earthquake and tsunami in Japan on the auto industry continue to generate media attention with reports of global automotive parts shortages and manufacturing slowdowns.  The following is an update on how Ford is managing the situation. 

Q. What actions has Ford taken thus far due to parts shortage?
A. Ford is working with its suppliers on a daily basis to minimize any disruptions. The company is acting proactively and decisively to stay ahead of the situation, including restricting some paint colors in North America, Europe and China. Ford also has pulled ahead previously scheduled downtime or taken temporary downtime in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.
The company's previous announcements about global and North America production volumes are unchanged at this point.

Q. What actions (if any) does Ford plan related to the events in Japan?
A. We expect, beginning the last week of April and continuing into May, certain of our operations in Asia Pacific will be affected by shortages of components and vehicles kits as a result of the events in Japan.  This likely will require us to reduce or temporarily cease production of certain vehicles in Asia Pacific. Several of our plants around the world will also be taking previously planned downtime for the Easter holiday.

Q. Will any of these planned actions impact the availability of our vehicles?
A. We don’t expect that to be an issue at this point. At end of March, Ford had 412,000 vehicles in U.S. inventories, equivalent to 52 days’ supply; Ford of Europe had 287,000 units in inventory in the 19 main Western European markets, equivalent to 59 days’ supply; and inventories in APA at the end of March were 126,163 units, equivalent to 44 days’ supply.