11-18-2005, 05:06 AM
JAMES B. TREECE | Automotive News
Posted Date: 11/14/05
TOKYO -- As Toyota Motor Corp. cranks up its North American factories, it will reduce exports from Japan, right?
Wrong. Toyota is pushing its exports to new highs, and North America is the prime target.
In the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2006, Toyota expects to export 1.04 million vehicles to the United States, Canada and Mexico, up more than 20 percent from a year earlier. That's a record. Toyota's annual exports to North America have never topped 1 million units.
"Demand has been stronger than expected," says Takeshi Suzuki, Toyota's senior managing director in charge of the finance and accounting group. "It's not proper for us to keep customers waiting. So we have expanded capacity both at home and abroad."
Toyota, ever mindful of its image in America, is boosting imports as it touts itself as an all-American company.
"We are proud to be an integrated part of the American economy and integral partner to the communities where we do business," Dennis Cuneo, senior vice president of Toyota Motor North America, said in August.
Actually, Toyota has kept the ratio of imports to total U.S. sales steady in recent years. In 2000, imports accounted for 38.4 percent of U.S. sales. This year through October they accounted for 37.9 percent.
Other Japanese carmakers are not joining Toyota's export drive. This fiscal year, Nissan Motor Co.'s exports to North America are down. Honda Motor Co.'s are up, but well below the peak set in 2000.
Toyota ships all Scion and Lexus vehicles from Japan except the Lexus RX 330 SUV, which is built in Canada.
Among the major Toyota-brand vehicles exported to the United States are the Toyota Prius, 4Runner, Highlander, Land Cruiser and RAV4.
Big push in North America
Meanwhile, Toyota keeps expanding its existing North American plants. It will open an assembly plant in San Antonio in late 2006 to produce the Toyota Tundra pickup, and it will boost transmission output in West Virginia.
Toyota predicts its North American sales this fiscal year will jump 12.3 percent to a record 2.55 million units.
Opening and expanding factories is expensive.
This fiscal year Toyota will spend $11.93 billion around the world on new plants and equipment. Of that, $7.16 billion will be spent in Japan and $2.13 billion in North American plants.
By comparison, General Motors will spend $8 billion on plants and equipment this year, and last year Ford Motor Co. spent $6.3 billion.
Toyota's capital expenditures are so large that they cut sharply into the automaker's profits for the six months ending Sept. 30.
To support its export surge, Toyota is adding production capacity in Japan. The company's assembly plants in Japan export slightly more than half of their output.
Toyota also is building more cars and trucks in North America. Output at its existing North American plants is up 6.2 percent this year, according to the Automotive News Data Center. But the automaker can't keep up.
Toyota's sales surge in North America and other regions is expected to lift the company's worldwide sales 8.4 percent this fiscal year to 8.03 million units. Many analysts expect Toyota to pass General Motors as the world's top-selling automaker in the next few years. GM produced 8.7 million vehicles worldwide in 2004.
Not done yet
Toyota is adding production capacity relentlessly.
The company's philosophy is to build vehicles in regions where demand exists. So the company plans to double annual vehicle production outside Japan to 5 million units, Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe wrote in the company's latest annual report.
Production in Japan, he wrote, "will support overseas manufacturing by absorbing fluctuations in global demand."
He added: "In our view, stagnation is synonymous with retreat; the outlook is bleak for any company that cannot sustain growth.
"Make no mistake, Toyota is bursting with energy and its appetite for growth is truly insatiable."
Posted Date: 11/14/05
TOKYO -- As Toyota Motor Corp. cranks up its North American factories, it will reduce exports from Japan, right?
Wrong. Toyota is pushing its exports to new highs, and North America is the prime target.
In the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2006, Toyota expects to export 1.04 million vehicles to the United States, Canada and Mexico, up more than 20 percent from a year earlier. That's a record. Toyota's annual exports to North America have never topped 1 million units.
"Demand has been stronger than expected," says Takeshi Suzuki, Toyota's senior managing director in charge of the finance and accounting group. "It's not proper for us to keep customers waiting. So we have expanded capacity both at home and abroad."
Toyota, ever mindful of its image in America, is boosting imports as it touts itself as an all-American company.
"We are proud to be an integrated part of the American economy and integral partner to the communities where we do business," Dennis Cuneo, senior vice president of Toyota Motor North America, said in August.
Actually, Toyota has kept the ratio of imports to total U.S. sales steady in recent years. In 2000, imports accounted for 38.4 percent of U.S. sales. This year through October they accounted for 37.9 percent.
Other Japanese carmakers are not joining Toyota's export drive. This fiscal year, Nissan Motor Co.'s exports to North America are down. Honda Motor Co.'s are up, but well below the peak set in 2000.
Toyota ships all Scion and Lexus vehicles from Japan except the Lexus RX 330 SUV, which is built in Canada.
Among the major Toyota-brand vehicles exported to the United States are the Toyota Prius, 4Runner, Highlander, Land Cruiser and RAV4.
Big push in North America
Meanwhile, Toyota keeps expanding its existing North American plants. It will open an assembly plant in San Antonio in late 2006 to produce the Toyota Tundra pickup, and it will boost transmission output in West Virginia.
Toyota predicts its North American sales this fiscal year will jump 12.3 percent to a record 2.55 million units.
Opening and expanding factories is expensive.
This fiscal year Toyota will spend $11.93 billion around the world on new plants and equipment. Of that, $7.16 billion will be spent in Japan and $2.13 billion in North American plants.
By comparison, General Motors will spend $8 billion on plants and equipment this year, and last year Ford Motor Co. spent $6.3 billion.
Toyota's capital expenditures are so large that they cut sharply into the automaker's profits for the six months ending Sept. 30.
To support its export surge, Toyota is adding production capacity in Japan. The company's assembly plants in Japan export slightly more than half of their output.
Toyota also is building more cars and trucks in North America. Output at its existing North American plants is up 6.2 percent this year, according to the Automotive News Data Center. But the automaker can't keep up.
Toyota's sales surge in North America and other regions is expected to lift the company's worldwide sales 8.4 percent this fiscal year to 8.03 million units. Many analysts expect Toyota to pass General Motors as the world's top-selling automaker in the next few years. GM produced 8.7 million vehicles worldwide in 2004.
Not done yet
Toyota is adding production capacity relentlessly.
The company's philosophy is to build vehicles in regions where demand exists. So the company plans to double annual vehicle production outside Japan to 5 million units, Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe wrote in the company's latest annual report.
Production in Japan, he wrote, "will support overseas manufacturing by absorbing fluctuations in global demand."
He added: "In our view, stagnation is synonymous with retreat; the outlook is bleak for any company that cannot sustain growth.
"Make no mistake, Toyota is bursting with energy and its appetite for growth is truly insatiable."