Capybara ... one big freaking rat.
Posted on 05/23/2006 4:36:53 AM PDT by Flavius
ANSHA, China (AP) -- Toyota Motor Corp. on Tuesday rolled out its first made-in-China Camry from a new factory that the Japanese automaker hopes will help it to catch up with rivals in the world's fastest-growing car market.
click here Hundreds of Japanese and Chinese dignitaries were on hand for an elaborate ceremony as the Camry, the best-selling car in the United States and a top import in China, rolled off a line at Toyota's 3.8 billion yuan ($475 million) plant in Nansha, north of Hong Kong.
The company says the spic-and-span facility brings its most advanced technology to China -- a step sought by Chinese leaders as they try to build up a world-class auto industry.
"There is no question but that the Chinese market will overtake the Japanese market," said Yoshimi Inaba, Toyota's former chief for America, who was appointed last year to head the company's push into China.
Toyota joins a rush by the world's automakers for a share of China's auto market, which saw sales jump by 30 percent last year to 5.7 million vehicles, third largest in the world behind Japan's 5.8 million.
In a bid to pump up sales, Toyota said Chinese-made Camrys will be priced at 197,800-269,800 yuan ($24,700-$33,700), well below analysts' expectations. Imported Camrys last year sold for 340,000 yuan ($42,500).
"You see the price, it's very clear that we face heavy pressure in this market," said Zhang Fangyou, chairman of Toyota's local partner, Guangzhou Automobile Group.
Toyota, a relative latecomer to China, had a paltry 3.5 percent of the market last year, with 183,150 vehicles, according to the company's latest statistics.
That puts it well behind top foreign automaker General Motors Corp., which vaulted past Volkswagen AG of Germany to grab 11 percent of the market last year with 665,390 units sold.
Despite political tension between Japan and China that flared into riots last year, Japanese automakers are heavily investing in China, and last year pumped a total of 113.7 billion yen ($1.03 billion) into the country.
Much of that spending has gone to the area around the southern city of Guangzhou, near Hong Kong, which has become an automaking hub.
Japan's No. 3 automaker, Honda Motor Co., began making Accords in Guangzhou in 1999 and launched exports of its Jazz compact model from there to Europe last year. No. 2 Nissan Motor Co.'s joint venture in eastern Guangzhou with Dongfeng Motors has been ramping up production of the Tiida.
Toyota began exporting to China in 1964 but lagged behind rivals in the country, choosing instead to concentrate on the markets in the United States and Europe. It wasn't until 2002 that it rolled out its first locally produced, Toyota-brand car with a Chinese partner, state-owned FAW Group Corp.
Chinese and Japanese officials are keen to highlight progress in business ties between the two Asian giants amid disputes over territory and over Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to a war shrine that honors the dead of World War II, including war criminals.
Such political tension doesn't seem to affect most Chinese consumers, who link Toyota with quality, reliability and fuel-efficiency.
"There are already a lot of loyal customers," said Yale Zhang, an analyst at CSM Asia Corp. "Everybody is waiting for this car."
Toyota says it has spent 215 billion yen ($1.9 billion) in China since 1998 and now has a dozen plants making parts and assembling vehicles.
"This factory has the world's most advanced technology, the newest equipment," says Katsuhiro Shinzato, a Toyota employee, as he led a tour through the factory's highly automated lines ahead of the Camry launch.
Local workers spent between three and six months in training. The daily routine calls for 30-minute meetings twice a day, at the beginning and end of shifts, to thrash out any problems.
The production line is built at eye level to encourage eye contact as well, Shinzato said.
"Communication is extremely important," he said.
Although the factory has 263 of the latest robots, its level of automation is only 54 percent, he said, well below the 80 percent to 90 percent found at factories in Japan and the West. That's typical of most foreign auto plants in China, where labor costs a fraction of Western rates.
Despite wages of about $2 an hour, foreign automakers face relatively high costs in China, mainly due to their need to import steel and components from abroad.
But that is changing as productivity improves and auto parts makers shift factories to China.
Toyota's joint venture with Guangzhou Automobile, a state company that was founded as a machining factory before the 1949 communist revolution, is due to have a capacity of 100,000 Camry sedans a year and to add the Vitz subcompact by 2008.
Before the company stopped exporting Camry's to China in mid-2005, the car was the top-selling import model for years. Sales dropped last year to 9,000 from about 23,000 the year before.
The new Nansha factory also has drawn a group of parts suppliers such as Japan's Denso Corp., which said Tuesday it will spend 30 billion yen ($265 million) over the next five years to shift production to China.
With its partner FAW, Toyota made 240,000 autos in four locations in 2005. It plans to bring another factory online in Tianjin in 2007, and to bring its market share up to 10 percent by 2010.
Capybara ... one big freaking rat.
Probably from the same guy that came up with the name Booo-ikk.
You got me, and got me LOL.
Now, let me refer you to another rodent...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1636832/posts?page=1#1
Thanks for clearing that up. Looks like you could get a couple of good seat covers out of one of those!
My eyes! My eyes!
"Does anybody know where Toyota came up with that goofy name (Camry)?"
I think it is Japanese for Detroit sucks.
That's true, but China isn't done with developing their auto industry. Along with final assembly, there are typically plans to increase the local contents of the parts. And as more parts are manufactured there, the price of the automobile will continue to drop. And China will also have the advantage of economy of scale putting even more downward pressure on the price of automobiles. And as more of the automobile is made in China, it will put an upward pressure on wages.
As they continue to move further along the technology path, R&D centers will be built there putting even more upward pressures on wages.
So, the story hasn't finished yet. China still produces less automobiles than Japan, but I'm convinced in 15 years, they'll produce more than Japan AND the US COMBINED.
>>Despite wages of about $2 an hour
Actually it's pretty descent wage for factory workers in China.
We don't. But if China can import cheap cars to the US, just like they fill Wally World with cheap goods, Americans >will< buy the cheaper car.
Just another example of our manufacturing base going overseas.
They seem very friendly, I never knew they could write.
The reason our manufacturing base is going overseas is this: We have allowed our (formerly Constitutional) government to be hijacked and its currency to be manipulated. (Note to both parties, elected representatives and their sycophants: this is your clue to take a bow.) Right now, money is being printed unconstitutionally and spent by government at an unprecedented rate. That drives up the costs of living and doing in business in America UP. We the people allowed this to occur without a fight, and are now paying the consequences.
Anyone have a problem with that?
I'm not sure I see the problem. Toyota builds cars here to sell here and in this market. Toyota builds cars to sell there and in that market.
I don't see how that affects our manufacturers at all. If anything, it should drive them toward improvement via percieved future competition.
As for Wally World, they spend over 20 times more money with American suppliers than they do with Chinese.
"Americans >will< buy the cheaper car."
Then the American auto manufacturers should be far out-selling the imports but they are not. Value and quality sell cars.
By your assessment, the only lawn tractors sold should be of the "Wally World" variety. They are the cheapest and as you said Americans >will< buy the cheapest, right? I mean those Craftsman, John Deere, Cub Cadet, Toro, etc. tractors that are HUGELY popular are considerably more expensive. People buy them because they are of high quality and a good value given their quality and durability.
I'm guessing you're one of those folks who sometimes refer to Americans as "sheeple". Keep thinking that.
THis assumes of course China doesn't decide to nationalize its factories and industry once its built enough wealth to afford an all out shooting war with the west.
Camry=Mycar
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