The Philippine subsidiary of U.S. carmaker Ford Motor Company has announced a suspension of operations until May 8 amid reports of supply shortages of automotive parts.

Car parts supplies for the Ford facility, like other automotive firms in the Philippines, come from suppliers in Japan whose own operations had been disrupted by the massive earthquake and tsunami in early March.

The same predicament, a limited supply of parts, has been invoked by Toyota Motor Corp.'s Philippine subsidiary for a three-day downtime set for next week. The move will result in a factory closure for the entire week since April 21 and 22 (Maundy Thursday and Good Friday) are holidays in the Philippines.

Toyota's parent company in Japan had earlier announced plans for the suspension of production at facilities in Europe "for several days late in May and early May" because of parts shortages.

Expected to be affected by the Toyota operations halt are two engine factories in Britain and Poland and three assembly plants in Britain, France and Turkey.

The work suspension at Ford, which started on April 11, effectively moves up the Philippine assembly plant's 18 scheduled down days for the year as a strategy to ensure its supply of automotive parts in the coming months, the company said.

Any further production freeze beyond these scheduled downtime, said the company, will depend on market demand, including the export market.

Ford Motor said early this week in a regulatory filing in the U.S. it expected its operations in the Asia Pacific area to slow or even stop due to parts shortages from Japan.

Ford Group Philippines is one of the U.S. carmaker's 13 plants in the Asia-Pacific region. The Philippine plant is said to be the country's only exporter of completely built units.

Just last week, Ford Philippines reported a 74 percent surge in its first-quarter sales to the domestic market, reaching 2,387 vehicles compared to 1,375 units it registered in the same period last year.

The company said its exports over the same period increased by 7 percent, to 1,816 units this year compared to 1,704 units last year.

Ford Philipppines exports Ford Focus, Ford Escape, and Mazda 3 mainly to Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia. For the full year 2010, the local Ford plant's exports totaled 9,858 units, higher by 35 percent from the 2009 mark, the company has previously reported.