Toyota builds new China plant, capacity nears 1 mln

TOKYO, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp said on Monday it would build a new, 4 billion yuan ($584 million) factory in China with local partner FAW Group Corp, bringing its planned local production capacity to 1 million vehicles a year.

The factory in Changchun, Toyota's sixth with the FAW Group, will produce 100,000 Corolla cars a year, adding to Toyota's current capacity of 643,000 cars a year in the world's second-biggest auto market. The 50-50 partners, which held a groundbreaking ceremony for the plant on Monday, have not decided when production would begin.

Toyota has already announced plans to expand two of its other car plants with FAW. It also has plans to add a second, 120,000-units-a-year line at its factory in Guangzhou with its other local partner, Guangzhou Automotive, in mid-2009, eventually raising the line's capacity to 200,000 units a year.

The planned additions and expansions would bring Toyota's annual output capacity in China to 1.01 million vehicles a year.

Toyota, the world's biggest automaker, is targeting sales of about 1 million cars annually in China soon after 2010. It also imports all of its Lexus luxury models into China.