Toyota Motor stresses commitment to SE Asia<\/p>\n
TOKYO (Dow Jones): Toyota Motor Corp., Japan's biggest
\nautomaker, considers Southeast Asia's slump over the past year as
\nmostly cyclical and has no plans to shut factories in the region,
\nsaid top officials in a recent interview.<\/p>\n
In fact, it is significantly lifting the number of parts
\nsourced by its Japanese factories from the Southeast Asian
\noperations, and will shift some product lines into the region and
\nout of Japan.<\/p>\n
Production levels around Southeast Asia are so low that
\nRyoichi Sasaki, a general manager of the Asia division, doesn't
\nhesitate to use the word "rescue" when describing what Toyota is
\ndoing with its vast production capacity.<\/p>\n
"No doubt, all the manufacturing plants are having a very
\ndifficult time at the moment," he said. "There are a number of
\nsuppliers very close to Toyota (operating) in Asean countries,
\ntherefore we also try to rescue their local counterparts."<\/p>\n
By "rescue," Sasaki said he means keeping Toyota's assembly
\nlines running, even though demand is falling short of supply, and
\nfrantically trying to generate economies of scale by better
\nallocating manufacturing between plants in the region and those
\nin Japan.<\/p>\n
Plants that were designed to serve domestic markets are being
\nre-assigned to satisfy export markets outside Asia. That means
\nmaking pickup trucks destined for Australia in Thailand instead
\nof Japan, as Toyota will start doing in September, and shipping
\nunused casting dies from Southeast Asian plants to ones in
\nEastern Europe.<\/p>\n
Toyota has factories in virtually all Southeast Asian nations,
\nset up as far back as the 1960s to cater to what the company had
\nexpected to be a booming regional market for its products.<\/p>\n
Expansions also occurred in the late 1980s and 1990s.<\/p>\n
But the Asia crisis has led to a sharp fall in demand for
\nautomobiles. Sakaki said Toyota's regional plants are now running
\nat only 20 percent to 30 percent of capacity and in many places,
\nproduction runs have been reduced to less than one full shift a
\nday, and sometimes only two weeks a month.<\/p>\n
Aside from Japan, Southeast Asia has the largest geographic
\nconcentration of Toyota plants, including many parts makers.<\/p>\n
Toyota officials said that they have been formulating plans
\nsince late last year to keep these assembly lines in motion,
\nincluding retooling the plants for export.<\/p>\n
The company produced 244,400 vehicles in Asia last year, about
\n18 percent of the overseas total, and compared with the 1.5
\nmillion it exported from Japan during 1997. Exports from Japan
\nand elsewhere, however, are down this year.<\/p>\n
But Toyota officials said the company intends to boost
\nproduction in the region of some products, sometimes at the
\nexpense of Japanese facilities. "We don't have such a concern
\nabout it, because Japan Toyota operations are so huge we can
\nabsorb that (possible dent to domestic revenues)," Sasaki said.<\/p>\n
Export of parts from Southeast Asian plants to Japan will be
\nboosted by at least five times the 1997 levels by 2000, Sasaki
\nestimated. Many of those parts will be installed in cars being
\nassembled in Japan and destined for elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Another business plan was decided at a board meeting last
\nNovember that aims to de-emphasize the strategy Toyota has
\nemployed for decades. Instead of looking at Southeast Asian
\nnations as stand-alone markets, Toyota is breaking operations
\ndown by business line.<\/p>\n
For example, diesel engine production is being concentrated in
\nThailand, gasoline engines will be produced in Indonesia and
\ntransmissions are to be handled in the Philippines. Aside from
\nparts and component manufacturing, most of Toyota's factories in
\nSoutheast Asia do assembly.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/toyota-motor-stresses-commitment-to-se-asia-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}