Ford, Mazda deny plan for their China JV break-up

Shanghai, January 18 (Gasgoo.com) Ford Motor and Mazda Motor said today that they had no plans to dissolve their car-making joint venture in China, now the world's largest auto market, Reuters reported.

The two companies were responding to a Sunday report by Japan's Nikkei business daily. The report said that they and China's Chongqing Changan Auto had agreed to end their three-way partnership by 2012 and that Ford was planning to restructure the ownership of their venture Changan Ford Mazda Automobile Co.

"We have a good relationship with both our partners and there is no plan currently to dissolve the joint venture," a Mazda spokeswoman told Reuters. A spokesman of Ford dismissed the report as "speculation." A Changan spokesman also said the three partners had never discussed a possible break-up.

The "speculation" was fueled partly by the fact that Mazda's ties with Ford have weakened since the U.S. automaker reduced its controlling one-third stake in Mazda to 13% in 2008 to free up cash. Ford currently owns about 11% of Mazda, Japan's No. 5 automaker.

The Changan Ford Mazda venture now makes Mazda 2 and Mazda 3 compact cars as well as Ford's Focus, Fiesta, Mondeo, S-MAX, Volvo S40 and S80 models. Ford is currently selling its Volvo unit to China's Geely.

The venture's Dec. sales rose 61.4% year-on-year to 27,680 units and its full year sales in 2009 reached 316,139 units, up 54.5%. It sold 72,697 Mazda cars last year, about 40% of Mazda's total China sales.