Toyota To Up China Output Over 50%

TOKYO November 30, 2003; Yoshio Takahashi writing for Dow Jones reported that Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday it will boost production capacity at its joint venture in China by more than 50% to 80,000 vehicles a year ahead of its planned output of the Corolla small sedan there.

A relative latecomer to the Chinese market, Toyota aims to ramp up output there to compete with rivals such as Volkswagen AG , the leader in China's passenger-car sector.

Japan's biggest automaker will increase capacity at its joint venture with China's FAW Group Corp. and start output of the Corolla at a rate of 30,000 vehicles a year from the spring, as it announced in April.

The joint venture has produced the Vios since October 2002, starting output at an annualized rate of 30,000 vehicles but upping that to some 50,000 in March as sales of the subcompact remained strong. In the first 10 months of this year, Toyota sold 40,000 units of the Vios, topping its annual sales target of 30,000.

The subcompact model will share its production line with the Corolla model.

Toyota, which is targeting a market share of 10% in China by 2010, said in late October it was establishing an automobile sales company in Beijing as part of a broad tie with the FAW Group.

Sales of domestically made cars in China rose 67.7% on year to 1.5 million units in the 10 months ended October, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Chinese car production in the first 10 months reached about 1.5 million units, up 82.8% on year, the auto association said.

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