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10-31-2008, 06:03 PM
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Toyota to export vehicles from US
By Jonathan Soble in Tokyo
Published: October 31 2008 11:34 | Last updated: October 31 2008 18:33
Toyota (http://markets.ft.com/tearsheets/performance.asp?s=jp:7203)is to export thousands of US-built sport utility vehicles and pick-up trucks to the Middle East and Latin America to relieve a glut of unsold models at its North American dealerships.
It will be the first time the Japanese automaker has shipped US-built trucks outside North America, where it has produced its brawniest models for local sale since the start of the decade.
Toyota said on Friday it would export about 15,000 Sequoia full-size SUVs to Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich Persian Gulf states next year.
In addition, about 150 of the seven-passenger 4x4s will be exported to Latin America along with 1,000 Tundra full-sized pick-ups.
The exports, which will begin in December, represent a large slice of Toyota’s total output of the models. The company made 33,000 Sequoias at its plant in Indiana from the start of the year until September, when it suspended production as part of an overhaul of its US manufacturing operations.
The decision follows a plunge in US truck and SUV sales this year, the result of a surge in fuel prices followed by the credit crisis and an economic slowdown. Toyota’s truck sales were down 35 per cent in September, with the largest models suffering even steeper falls.
Other Japanese automakers are also hurting. Nissan (http://markets.ft.com/tearsheets/performance.asp?s=jp:7201), Japan’s third biggest producer, cut its profit forecast for the fiscal year to March by half on Friday and said net earnings for the quarter to September dropped by 39 per cent.
Carlos Ghosn, chief executive of Nissan and its French alliance partner Renault (http://markets.ft.com/tearsheets/performance.asp?s=fr:RNO), has cut 2,500 permanent jobs in the US and Spain and another 1,000 contract positions in Japan. Honda (http://markets.ft.com/tearsheets/performance.asp?s=jp:7267) lowered its forecast on Monday and Toyota is expected to do the same next week.
Toyota developed the full-sized truck platform shared by the Sequoia and Tundra specifically for the North American market in the late 1990s, when cheap petrol fuelled voracious demand for the vehicles and enriched its now-struggling Detroit competitors. It touted a significant revamp of the platform last year as its biggest US launch in decades.
Production at the company’s Indiana plant and a Tundra factory in Texas is to resume this month but buyers remain scarce. Toyota had 104 days’ inventory of Sequoias at the end of October, an amount it hopes to cut to 30-40 days’ worth, in part through the export programme.
Virtually all of Toyota’s US and Canadian output is sold to local drivers, but the company has been exporting a small number of North American-made Avalon saloons to the Middle East since the mid-1990s. Sales of luxury cars and big SUVs continue to expand in the oil-rich region.
http://media.ft.com/FTCOM/Images/ftlogo2.gif
http://media.ft.com/t.gif
Toyota to export vehicles from US
By Jonathan Soble in Tokyo
Published: October 31 2008 11:34 | Last updated: October 31 2008 18:33
Toyota (http://markets.ft.com/tearsheets/performance.asp?s=jp:7203)is to export thousands of US-built sport utility vehicles and pick-up trucks to the Middle East and Latin America to relieve a glut of unsold models at its North American dealerships.
It will be the first time the Japanese automaker has shipped US-built trucks outside North America, where it has produced its brawniest models for local sale since the start of the decade.
Toyota said on Friday it would export about 15,000 Sequoia full-size SUVs to Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich Persian Gulf states next year.
In addition, about 150 of the seven-passenger 4x4s will be exported to Latin America along with 1,000 Tundra full-sized pick-ups.
The exports, which will begin in December, represent a large slice of Toyota’s total output of the models. The company made 33,000 Sequoias at its plant in Indiana from the start of the year until September, when it suspended production as part of an overhaul of its US manufacturing operations.
The decision follows a plunge in US truck and SUV sales this year, the result of a surge in fuel prices followed by the credit crisis and an economic slowdown. Toyota’s truck sales were down 35 per cent in September, with the largest models suffering even steeper falls.
Other Japanese automakers are also hurting. Nissan (http://markets.ft.com/tearsheets/performance.asp?s=jp:7201), Japan’s third biggest producer, cut its profit forecast for the fiscal year to March by half on Friday and said net earnings for the quarter to September dropped by 39 per cent.
Carlos Ghosn, chief executive of Nissan and its French alliance partner Renault (http://markets.ft.com/tearsheets/performance.asp?s=fr:RNO), has cut 2,500 permanent jobs in the US and Spain and another 1,000 contract positions in Japan. Honda (http://markets.ft.com/tearsheets/performance.asp?s=jp:7267) lowered its forecast on Monday and Toyota is expected to do the same next week.
Toyota developed the full-sized truck platform shared by the Sequoia and Tundra specifically for the North American market in the late 1990s, when cheap petrol fuelled voracious demand for the vehicles and enriched its now-struggling Detroit competitors. It touted a significant revamp of the platform last year as its biggest US launch in decades.
Production at the company’s Indiana plant and a Tundra factory in Texas is to resume this month but buyers remain scarce. Toyota had 104 days’ inventory of Sequoias at the end of October, an amount it hopes to cut to 30-40 days’ worth, in part through the export programme.
Virtually all of Toyota’s US and Canadian output is sold to local drivers, but the company has been exporting a small number of North American-made Avalon saloons to the Middle East since the mid-1990s. Sales of luxury cars and big SUVs continue to expand in the oil-rich region.