Ford Motor Co. (F) said Thursday that it has $15 billion in cash on hand in an apparent sign that the auto maker's liquidity squeeze is easing.

Ford Chief Executive Alan Mulally revealed the position in an interview with Fox Business Network.

The second-largest U.S. automaker burned through $7.7 billion in cash during the third quarter to Sept. 30 last year and finished the period with $18.9 billion on hand.

The company has yet to report fourth-quarter results, but Mulally's remark suggests the company's monthly cash burn narrowed to $1.3 billion in the fourth quarter compared with $2.5 billion per month in the previous three months.

"We're very conscious of cash, and we focused all of our investments and all of our daily operations," Mulally said in the interview.

"We're working very closely with our suppliers and our payables, and we are managing that cash because cash right now is so important to finance this [Ford's] transformation."

Cash burn has pushed rivals such as General Motors Corp. (GM) and Chrysler LLC (C.XX) to seek low-cost loans from the federal government in order to survive.

Ford has passed on the loans for now.

By Jeff Bennett, Dow Jones Newswires; 248-204-5532; jeff.bennett@dowjones.com

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