Anatolia News Agency (Jeddah) - Japanese auto firm Toyota plans to start Corolla production at its Turkey plant, the company's distributor in Turkey has said.
Toyota's move was announced by Saudi Arabia's ALJ Chairman Muhammed Jeemil at his meeting with Turkish Industry and Trade Minister Nihat Ergün in Jeddah on Saturday.
In 2009, ALJ bought 65 percent of Turkey-based Sabancı Holding's stake in ToyotaSA, in which it partnered with Toyota Motor Europe and Mitsui.
Jeemil said ALJ Group had been in talks with Toyota headquarters in Japan to push for capacity increase in Turkey plant and make it a regional production hub.
He said Toyota has decided to start building Corolla in Turkey. However, Jeemil did not elaborate.
Toyota manufactures the Corolla Verso and Auris models in Turkey, which are shipped to 30 countries mainly in Europe. It has an annual production capacity of 150,000 units. It is one of the 10 biggest overseas manufacturing operations of Toyota.
ALJ is the distributor of the motor vehicles of the Toyota Group (Toyota, Lexus and Daihatsu) in 12 countries – Japan, England, Germany, China, Egypt, Monaco, Morocco, Algeria, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey. The company is currently Toyota's largest independent distributor in the world.
