Ford Canada sales jump 25 percent in June

* Records its first y/y sales increase of 2009

* Increases market share for 8th straight month

* Has added 16 pct of y/y production increase for Q3

* Ford Canada CEO expects overall market rebound in Q4

* Estimates overall industry down about 14 pct in June

By John McCrank

TORONTO, July 2 (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co (F.N) of Canada was the number one selling automaker in the country for the first time in 50 years as it posted a 25 percent jump in sales in June over a year earlier, the company said on Thursday.

Ford Canada sold 27,408 vehicles in June, marking its first year-over-year sales increase of 2009, and its eighth month in a row of market share gain.

Ford's car sales dipped 1.5 percent in the month to 6,648 units, while truck sales jumped 36.1 percent to 20,760.

Sales results from the other Canadian automakers are expected throughout the day.

Final sales numbers for the overall industry in June were not in yet, but a Ford Canada executive said he expected an industry-wide decline of about 14 percent.

David Mondragon, Ford Canada's president and chief executive, told Reuters that while the overall market appears to have bottomed, there will likely be some difficult months ahead before sales really begin to recover in the fourth quarter.

"We are not waving a flag of victory by any means," he said. "This was a good month and we're going to celebrate the month, but we're going to continue to focus on our plan to grow our share of the market as the year goes on."

General Motors Corp GMGMQ.PK entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June and both it and Chrysler [CBS.UL], also in bankruptcy protection in the United States, had many plants closed during the month to help cut back on inventory levels.

Mondragon said that while Ford Canada expects industry-wide vehicle sales to be down by 14 percent to 18 percent throughout the third quarter, the company is already beginning to ramp up production.

"We've added 16 percent of year-over-year production increase in the third quarter to help us meet higher levels of demand and forecast higher levels of demand as we go into the later part of the third and into the fourth quarter," he said.

($1=$1.16 Canadian) (Reporting by John McCrank; editing by Rob Wilson)