news
According to Reuters, the Tokyo Shimbun said Toyota will start operating the plant, which is slated to build the popular Prius Hybrid, as early as June 2011.
No Toyota officials or sources are named in the story, however. Toyota spokeswoman Barbara McDaniel told the NEMS Daily Journal newspaper Monday: "Nothing official has been determined. Consistent with what we've been saying, when market conditions allow, there will be an announced decision on start-up for Blue Springs."
The Tokyo Shimbun newspaper said that Mississippi is "suffering" from a10.6 percent unemployment rate and that state officials have been "pressing Toyota to soon start the plant."
In December 2008, amid a deepening recession and slumping global auto sales, Toyota said it was suspending indefinitely the completion of the Blue Springs plant.
The Blue Springs plant, officially dubbed Toyota Motor Manufacturing Mississippi, or TMMMS, was originally scheduled to open later this year.
Sunday's Tokyo Shimbun story isn't the first to speculate the plant's opening.
In December, the Japanese business daily Nikkei said Toyota planned to resume work on TMMMS. It also said Toyota would build the Corolla, rather than the Prius.
But Toyota officials in the U.S. said the status of the plant had not changed
Officials could not be reached on Sunday.
The Blue Springs plant is all but complete. Officials have said finishing the 2-million-square-foot facility, installing equipment and training employees would take about 18 months before the first vehicle could roll off the line.
"US New plant will be opened by June 2011"
http://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/economics/news/CK2010040202000072.html
I have been subscribing this news paper for more
than 50years (from my father's day).
Tokyo shinbun have some insight on Toyota.
I believe the article is true.
I know that that this is picky but the whole article is not real credible so get the language correct at least.
According to Bloomberg:
"Auto Sales
Auto sales fell last month to an annual pace of 10.4 million vehicles from 10.8 million in January, according to industry data last week. Toyota Motor Corp. sales fell 8.7 percent from a year earlier as it struggled with global recalls that halted demand for some models. Ford Motor Co., overcoming the snowstorms that curbed showroom traffic, beat General Motors Co. in monthly sales for the first time since 1998."
And, as I've said earlier, such a decision will a closely guarded secret at the highest levels in Toyota. So, I don't give much credibility to such rumors by newspapers, Japanese or not.
If/when they're ready, Toyota will make an official announcement on the plant. Until then, all this other stuff is just noise.
"Nothing official has been determined. Consistent with what we've been saying, when market conditions allow, there will be an announced decision on start-up for Blue Springs."