Toyota To Build New SUV Plant In Southern US

NEW YORK October 23, 2002, Dow Jones reported that Toyota Motor Corp. plans to build its sixth North American plant in a southern U.S. state and begin operating it in 2005 at the earliest, Kyodo News agency reported Wednesday, citing company sources.

The new plant will produce large sport-utility vehicles at an annual rate of 100,000 to 200,000 units, the sources said.

Toyota will pick two candidate states before deciding on a plant site later this year by comparing tax and other conditions, they said.

Models to be produced at the planned factory will also be decided then, the sources said.

Toyota's brisk sales in the North American market, which totaled some 1.9 million units in 2001 and which are forecast to come close to 2 million units this year, are spurring the plant expansion, Kyodo said.

In North America, the automaker currently has manufacturing operations in three U.S. states - California, Kentucky and Indiana - and Canada, and is building a plant in Mexico for production of pickup trucks from 2005.

Toyota plans to boost production in North America to more than 1.6 million units from the current 1.25 million, the sources said.

Toyota plans to maintain annual exports from Japan to North America at the current level of 700,000 units, they added.