Ford's European division is sticking to forecasts of higher 2007 profits although it is worried about Japanese competition due to the weak yen, its chief executive Lewis Booth has said.
"We want to be more profitable than last year," Booth said, according to a summary of an article due to appear in Monday's edition of Germany's Automobilwochemagazine.
Japanese carmakers were exploiting their currency's weakness against the euro and this was making the higher profit expectations especially challenging, Mr Booth said.
Ford of Europe posted a 2006 pre-tax profit of $469 million excluding special items, an improvement of $396 million from a year earlier and its third consecutive year of profit. The unit contributed around 30 per cent of Ford's worldwide group sales.
In July, it had a share of 8.2 per cent in the European car market, according to the report today.
Ford was pinning great hopes on the success of new products such as the Kuga SUV and Verve, a small car, Mr Booth said.
Its European plants were working flat out which was one reason why he hoped that his firm would win a tender to acquire a majority stake in Romanian carmaker Automobile Craiova in September, he said.