Strong demand in the Middle East, Europe...

Strong demand in the Middle East, Europe and Japan helped Ford Motor Co. boost first-quarter exports of North American-made vehicles by nearly 72%, the company said. Ford reported exporting 7,887 vehicles in the first three months of the year, up from 4,588 a year earlier. Ford said it was raising its earlier export estimate of 30,000 vehicles for 1988 to 36,000, an increase of more than 60% over 1987 shipments. The best selling exports were the Mercury Grand Marquis, Ford Taurus and Mustang models.