Toyota picks Thailand as base for pick-up trucks
Toyota picks Thailand as base for pick-up trucks
Agence France-Presse, Bangkok
Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp. will invest almost US$700 million in Thailand after choosing the emerging automobile manufacturing hub as its base for the production of pick-up trucks.
Toyota said Thursday that under the plan annual production of pick-up trucks, multipurpose vehicles at its plant in Thailand will surge five-fold by mid-2004 to 200,000 units, half of which will be earmarked for exports. The plant will also make diesel engines.
The company said investment in the project would exceed 30 billion baht ($697 million), creating about 10,000 jobs, including 3,000 at Toyota and its subsidiaries.
"Toyota's decision to locate a global production base in Thailand came naturally, since the Thai government has encouraged the development of the automotive industry and strengthened competitiveness through vigorous policies," Toyota managing director Akio Toyoda said.
Toyota said it also planned to export parts for pick-up trucks and multipurpose vehicles to other Toyota manufacturing plants in nine countries.
Meanwhile Thailand's Board of Investment (BOI) has rejected for a second time a proposal by Japan's Isuzu to establish a product procurement center here, a report said.
The BOI said the 2.5 billion baht proposal was knocked back because the project needed to better establish its relationship with the local unit of General Motors (GM), the Nation newspaper said.
Isuzu's planned international procurement center (IPC) would handle imports and exports of parts and vehicles for its own factory as well as GM's, BOI adviser Supat Limpraporn was cited as saying.
"Basically the IPC should be handling the business of only one company, and with regards to Isuzu's project, the BOI has to ensure that the incentives we provide would not improperly benefit another company," Supat told the daily.
The board has instructed Isuzu to clarify the relationship between its IPC, Isuzu and GM prior to another BOI meeting next month, the report said.
Isuzu's proposal was rejected in April on the grounds of the high cost of international exports that the project would need.
Thailand has become a Southeast Asian manufacturing base for global automakers, thanks to its central geographical position, good infrastructure, generous tax and legal incentives, and a supply of equipment and spare parts.