DETROIT, Jan 14: After years of crisis, the big three US automakers face another brutal year with demand expected to dip again due to an economic downturn threatening to snuff out 2007’s timid recovery.

The world’s major automakers exhibit upcoming models and the concept cars of the future from Sunday as media previews kick off for the Detroit motor show. But the extravaganza comes amid gloomy predictions for the market.

“It’s pretty clear that demand in the US will decline during 2008,” Bruce Clark, an analyst at Moody's financial research group, told AFP.

“At this point we are anticipating total retail shipments of about 15.7 million units. But actual shipment levels could be even lower depending on the overall state of the US economy.”

The three US manufacturers used to hold 95 per cent of the market, but this has been chiselled to just over half as Asian firms seized 47 per cent with Japan leading the charge, according to the firm Autodata.

Japanese giant Toyota for the first time passed Ford in the US auto sales rankings in 2007, taking second place behind General Motors (GM). Ford was pushed back into third place, with Chrysler in fourth.

European makers pose less of a general threat with around seven per cent of the US market, but hold an edge in sales of deluxe vehicles.

Restructuring by GM from 2005 and soon afterwards by Ford and Chrysler helped them begin closing the gap with the Japanese in terms of quality and productivity.

Each of them struck a pay deal with the major autoworkers union UAW -- a key achievement which Clark said transformed the industry, helping them cut production costs to operate more competitively in the mid- to long-term.

The deal cleared the way for the three companies to cut nearly 100,000 jobs.

GM said last week it had met its aims for 2007 by stabilising its position in the market, while Ford reported having considerably reduced its net losses after record losses of 12.6 billion US dollars in 2006.—AFP