Toyota to Start Construction of Third Plant in Tianjin in 2005

Tokyo March 21, 2005; Tian Ying writing for Bloomberg reported that Toyota Motor Corp., the world's biggest automaker by market value, will start construction of its third plant in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin as it seeks to gain a bigger slice of the world's third-largest vehicle market.

The new plant, to be built with its partner Tianjin FAW Xiali Automobile Co., will be able to produce 500,000 vehicles a year by 2007, the Toyota City, Japan-based automaker said in a statement distributed to reporters today at a briefing to mark the opening of its second plant in the city. The second plant has capacity for 100,000 Crown sedans a year.

Toyota is adding production and introducing new models to increase its share of China's car market to 10 percent by 2010 from about 3 percent now. It lags Honda Motor Co., which has about 5 percent of the market, Volkswagen AG, the market leader with 25 percent, and General Motors Corp. with 9.3 percent.

``Toyota is very ambitious in expanding in China although it is still too early to say whether it is successful or not,'' said Alex Fan, an analyst with Daiwa Institute of Research in Hong Kong, before the announcement.

The company's first joint venture plant in Tianjin has annual production capacity for 120,000 Corolla and Vios compact cars, the statement said.