6 Shooter
11-18-06, 08:56 AM
Saturday, November 18, 2006
http://cmsimg.detnews.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=C3&Date=20061118&Category=AUTO01&ArtNo=611180362&Ref=V2&Profile=1148Q=100&MaxW=500
Erich Schlegel / New York Times
Inspectors check one of the first Toyota Tundra pickup trucks to roll off the
line at the new San Antonio plant. Toyota will have 2,000 employees at
the plant, which is expected to produce 200,000 trucks annually
More factories may be needed to meet demand
Alan Ohnsman / Bloomberg News
Toyota Motor Corp. opened a $1.28 billion Texas auto plant Friday, its sixth in North America. The company, importing from Japan at a record pace, may need several more factories that size to keep up with U.S. sales growth.
Even as Toyota adds production capacity at North America's quickest pace, its sales are rising faster. Just 54 percent of the vehicles Toyota sold in the U.S. this year were made in the U.S., Canada or Mexico, compared with 62 percent a year earlier. Toyota's exports from Japan this year are set to break a record -- set 20 years ago by Toyota.
"They need to open a San Antonio-size plant every year to keep up with the tremendous growth," said Jim Womack, president of the Lean Enterprise Institute in Brookline, Massachusetts. "But not at a pace that seriously harms efficiency or leads to defective products."
Toyota plans to have the ability to build as many as 2 million vehicles a year in North America by 2008, about 450,000 more than what it can build now, when its seventh plant in the region is completed. It's unclear where additional capacity will come from.
Toyota is considering building another factory in North America, U.S. production chief Gary Convis told reporters Friday. No decision has been made and Toyota is focused on existing projects, he added.
200,000 Tundras
The San Antonio factory by next year will make as many as 200,000 Tundra pickups with "more than 90 percent" of parts and materials coming from within North America, Hidehiko Tajima, the plant's president, said this week.
That would be among the highest levels for any U.S.-built pickup, he said. "This is a great truck and we're confident of its success," Convis said in an interview. "We're the most successful supplier in the small pickup-truck market and its taken time to develop the capacity to make this kind of large pickup truck."
San Antonio will have 2,000 Toyota employees when it reaches full capacity. The 2,000-acre site also includes 21 parts suppliers that will employ 2,100 workers in their operations.
Toyota's investment in San Antonio "means thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in wages for Texas families," Governor Rick Perry said at the plant Friday.
Toyota's exports from Japan are up 37 percent to 978,803 through October, and Toyota's U.S. sales have gained 12 percent this year on demand for Japan-built vehicles. That follows 10 percent annual sales increases in 2005 and 2004.
Honda Motor Co., fifth in U.S. sales, built 78 percent of the autos it has sold in the U.S. this year at North American plants.
Nissan Motor Co., sixth in the U.S., sourced 79 percent of its sales from U.S. and Mexican plants.
Source: The Detroit News Online (http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061118/AUTO01/611180362/1148)
http://cmsimg.detnews.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=C3&Date=20061118&Category=AUTO01&ArtNo=611180362&Ref=V2&Profile=1148Q=100&MaxW=500
Erich Schlegel / New York Times
Inspectors check one of the first Toyota Tundra pickup trucks to roll off the
line at the new San Antonio plant. Toyota will have 2,000 employees at
the plant, which is expected to produce 200,000 trucks annually
More factories may be needed to meet demand
Alan Ohnsman / Bloomberg News
Toyota Motor Corp. opened a $1.28 billion Texas auto plant Friday, its sixth in North America. The company, importing from Japan at a record pace, may need several more factories that size to keep up with U.S. sales growth.
Even as Toyota adds production capacity at North America's quickest pace, its sales are rising faster. Just 54 percent of the vehicles Toyota sold in the U.S. this year were made in the U.S., Canada or Mexico, compared with 62 percent a year earlier. Toyota's exports from Japan this year are set to break a record -- set 20 years ago by Toyota.
"They need to open a San Antonio-size plant every year to keep up with the tremendous growth," said Jim Womack, president of the Lean Enterprise Institute in Brookline, Massachusetts. "But not at a pace that seriously harms efficiency or leads to defective products."
Toyota plans to have the ability to build as many as 2 million vehicles a year in North America by 2008, about 450,000 more than what it can build now, when its seventh plant in the region is completed. It's unclear where additional capacity will come from.
Toyota is considering building another factory in North America, U.S. production chief Gary Convis told reporters Friday. No decision has been made and Toyota is focused on existing projects, he added.
200,000 Tundras
The San Antonio factory by next year will make as many as 200,000 Tundra pickups with "more than 90 percent" of parts and materials coming from within North America, Hidehiko Tajima, the plant's president, said this week.
That would be among the highest levels for any U.S.-built pickup, he said. "This is a great truck and we're confident of its success," Convis said in an interview. "We're the most successful supplier in the small pickup-truck market and its taken time to develop the capacity to make this kind of large pickup truck."
San Antonio will have 2,000 Toyota employees when it reaches full capacity. The 2,000-acre site also includes 21 parts suppliers that will employ 2,100 workers in their operations.
Toyota's investment in San Antonio "means thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in wages for Texas families," Governor Rick Perry said at the plant Friday.
Toyota's exports from Japan are up 37 percent to 978,803 through October, and Toyota's U.S. sales have gained 12 percent this year on demand for Japan-built vehicles. That follows 10 percent annual sales increases in 2005 and 2004.
Honda Motor Co., fifth in U.S. sales, built 78 percent of the autos it has sold in the U.S. this year at North American plants.
Nissan Motor Co., sixth in the U.S., sourced 79 percent of its sales from U.S. and Mexican plants.
Source: The Detroit News Online (http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061118/AUTO01/611180362/1148)