Toyota halts Changchun plant expansion

Shanghai, May 18 (Gasgoo.com) Toyota Motor Corp has nearly suspended the construction of its new plant project in northeastern China's Changchun city, mainly because the Japanese automaker's sales have dropped sharply in the global and Chinese markets.

On October 27, 2008, Sichuan FAW Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. (SFTM), a joint venture between Toyota Motor and China FAW Group, held a groundbreaking ceremony for its new, 4 billion yuan ($586 mln) plant in FAW's home city of Changchun, Jilin province. The plant, Toyota's sixth with FAW, was scheduled to have an annual capacity of 100,000 units, with the Corolla cited as the model intended for manufacture.

Last year, Toyota also planned to expand two of its other car plants with FAW, and to add a 120,000-units-a-year line in Guangzhou Toyota, a venture with its other Chinese partner, Guangzhou Auto, in mid-2009. The planned additions and expansions would bring Toyota's annual capacity in China to 1.01 million vehicles a year.

But over the past six months, Toyota Motor was heavily hit by the global financial crisis, with its sales sharply plunging in the global and Chinese markets. Toyota will slash global vehicle production by 28% in 2009 to the lowest in seven years as worldwide vehicle demand plummets.

Toyota's China sales in the first quarter of 2009 declined 17% year on year to 125,743 units while major rivals like General Motors and Nissan Motor posted robust growth in quarterly sales in China thanks to their small vehicle models. Toyota saw its China sales in April down 10.7%.

Toyota's planned further investment and expansion in China now have met with financial problems, but the global auto giant will keep its belief in its long-term profitability and growth in the Chinese auto market after weathering the current crisis.