Posted on 08/28/2009 3:43:07 AM PDT by ElephantinTexas
TACOMA PRODUCTION MOVES TO SA TOYOTA PLANT
It will mean 1,000 new Toyota jobs.
By Jim Forsyth Thursday, August 27, 2009
Toyota Motor Manufacturing of Texas announced Thursday night that Toyota is relocating its Tacoma mid sized pickup truck production form Fremont California to San Antonio, and is expected to make a $100 million investment in the plant on the city's south side, 1200 WOAI news reports.
"Here in Texas, the addition of the Tacoma to the Tundra production line will better utilize our plant's capacity and the 21 supplier facilities on our site," TMMTX President Kenji Fukuta said.
"This will require new jobs at our plant to handle the additional production, and on-site suppliers will also be adding new jobs, but it is too soon to give an estimate."
Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said the move will mean about 1,000 new jobs at Toyota itself, with additional new jobs at suppliers which ring the plant. Toyota said its too early to tell the size of the investment or the number of new jobs it will create.
The south side Toyota plant, which opened in 2007, turns out the full sized Tundra pickup truck, but Tundra sales have been down sharply since last summer's spike in gasoline prices, raising questions about the viability of the plant as a stand alone producer of Tundras alone.
"This announcement reflects the depth of the ties between Toyota and Texas while underscoring the strength of our state's workforce and job climate," Governor Rick Perry said.
Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said he expects Toyota will produce 100,000 Tacomas in San Antonio. The NUMMI production line currently turns out about 160,000 of the trucks per year. He says he does not expect today’s announcement will have any impact on a plant in Mexico which also turns out the trucks.
“What we have done on the incentive package, as that we put together is no different from what we would give to any other company that came here,” Wolff said.
“They haven’t stated exactly the investment or the number of jobs, but the investment package will be tied to that.
Toyota announced earlier today that it was shutting down it's New United Motor Manufacturing Incorporated facility in northern California, after General Motors pulled out of the partnership with Toyota as part of it's bankruptcy filing.
“I understand that the time line for their facility in California goes through March of next year,” San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro said.
Ironically, Castro is a graduate of Stanford University, which is not far from the NUMMI facility.
“We are very pleased with this decision,” Castro said.
“We know that San Antonio is the right place for this investment.”
The plant builds the Tacoma as well as the Corolla passenger car.
Officials indicated that Tacoma production will begin in San Antonio next spring, with full production expected by the summertime.
Now Californians will remember the Alamo, too.
Toyota has confirmed that Corolla production is moving to Canada and Japan. The Cambridge plant will be brought back up to speed and the Aichi plant will pick up the remainder of the business.
They said they “may” consider moving production back to “North America” at some point in the future.
Do NOT count on San Antonio getting the work. That plant was built to be dedicated to building body-on-frame trucks. Retooling for the Tacoma is relatively simple, since you for the most part just need additional locating pins for the smaller bodies (Chrysler’s Warren Truck plant does this, building the Dakota and Ram on the same line).
However, a small unibody vehicle is a completely different beast. You’re essentially building a whole new plant at that point. Look at what Ford is having to do to the Michigan Truck plant to retool it to build the next generation Focus. That’s a $550 million investment. The main savings over a new plant is simply in the building. The actual equipment is completely gutted.
So, if Toyota has to pay for a new factory in the future, do you think that they’ll put it in San Antonio? Or Mexico? Toyota has shown little loyalty to US production, despite their rhetoric.
PS -
When Ford announced that the Fiesta would be built in Mexico, the press spun the story as Ford moving production to Mexico. Nevermind that the Cuautitlan plant built F-series trucks for Mexico (not imported to the US) and that production was going to move to the US.
So you had the press then spinning the story as Ford selling out to Mexico, when in fact Mexico got a new model (not likely to sell well in the US, to be honest) and the American workers got to build trucks to export to Mexico.
How is reporting this as moving Corolla production to Canada any different? At least in this case we *know* that this means that Toyota will have a higher number of imported vehicles they sell. In Ford’s case, they may well end up exporting more trucks to Mexico than they import Fiestas from Mexico...
Right now I'm about as outraged as I have ever been. I just learned that Guvner Goodhair (Perry) has ordered our flags in TX to be lowered for the Swimmer! That is just wrong! I'm raising all kind's of hell about that right now!
I do IT consulting at the NUMMI plant, as well as provide service to some of the suppliers in San Antonio and the Tecate BC plant.
From what I hear Toyota is not enjoying the relationship with Mexico and it’s lack of security. I wouldn’t be surprised if they pull out from there and move all Tundra production to SA.
As far as the Corolla, no it won’t go to SA. I predict that it will move TO Tupelo MS, with the Prius once the economy picks up.
The whole point of this post was to point out what happens when you don't create a good environment for business. The business moves or goes out of business. Plain and simple.
Is this delicious or what?
Not that Pelosi will care. She’s got Beer companies funding gay parades.. that’s where the economic action is in S.F.
(Perry) has ordered our flags in TX to be lowered for the Swimmer!
I wish Susan Combs would run..... and she will, eventually.
Not that Pelosi will care. She’s got Queer companies funding gay parades
There, fixed that sentence . . .
Don’t worry Basil. They only come here to retire or buy up everything in town
They don’t wanna work.
Yeah—but they vote—and they vote the wrong way!
Knew I should of lied.
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