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Media reports from Japan as well as the Associated Press say that Toyota Motor Corp. officials will detail plans to gear up the facility for production.
Japan’s top business daily newspaper, The Nikkei, said Toyota will also restart plans for plants in Brazil and China.
Sources told the Daily Journal that an announcement about Blue Springs will be made Thursday morning. A Toyota spokesperson declined comment.
Rumors have swirled for months that the nearly 2 million-square-foot facility along U.S. Highway 78 will build the popular Corolla sedan when production begins, rather than the Prius hybrid.
The Associated Press reported Toyota plans to bring the Mississippi factory onstream, possibly in mid-2011, according to the Nikkei. Originally slated to start operations this year, the facility will produce about 100,000 Corolla sedans a year, the paper said.
Reports in recent months in the Japanese media – downplayed by Toyota officials – said work on the plant would resume this summer and the Corolla would be built at TMMMS.
Both vehicles are built on the same platform.
The plant – officially dubbed Toyota Motor Manufacturing Mississippi – was originally scheduled to build the Highlander SUV starting in late 2009, but the automaker said in July 2008 that it would produce the Prius instead.
But in December 2008, the company, citing the severe economic downturn that also pummeled global auto sales, said it would delay the plant indefinitely.
In the past, they have said Toyota would restart work at TMMMS when market conditions improved.
The automaker announced on Feb. 27, 2007, that it was building its eighth North American assembly plant in Blue Springs, located about 15 miles northwest of Tupelo.
Toyota said it would invest $1.3 billion in the facility and employ some 2,000 workers. Suppliers would add another 2,000 workers.
So far, Toyota has invested some $300 million of its own money into the project, with the state putting in another couple hundred million on infrastructure.
Officials have said in the past that getting the plant operational and producing vehicles would take 12 to 18 months.
TMMMS is all but complete, with only the installation of equipment and training of employees remaining. The plant currently has about 60 workers.
Read more in Thursday's NEMS Daily Journal. Click here for more business news at Biz Buzz.
From Reuters:
Toyota also plans to bring a factory in Mississippi onstream, possibly in mid-2011, the Nikkei said. Originally slated to start operations this year, the facility will produce about 100,000 Corolla sedans a year, the paper said.
Toyota had no immediate comment on the story.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTOE65F04Q20100616
Toyota had no immediate comment on the story.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTOE65F04Q20100616
By Yuri Kageyama, The Associated Press
TOKYO - Toyota is considering restarting its delayed Mississippi plant, according to sources familiar with the matter, as the auto market gradually recovers.
Toyota Motor Corp.'s auto plant in Blue Springs, Mississippi, was initially planned to be completed by 2010, but the plans, first announced in 2007, were put off when the U.S. economy nose-dived in late 2008.
The Nikkei, Japan's top business daily, reported Thursday that Toyota will also start up stalled plans for new plants in Brazil and China.
A Toyota spokeswoman said the decision will be announced when it becomes official.
The Mississippi plant is half-finished, but work on getting it up and running will begin, and production will start by the latter half of next year, under the new plan pending directors' approval.
Toyota, the world's No. 1 automaker, had been on an expansion track until sales tanked from the financial crisis.
The latest plan signals that Toyota is again ready to tackle a growth strategy, after managing to return to the black for the fiscal year ended March 31. The Japanese automaker had racked up its worst loss in its history the previous fiscal year.
Toyota, which makes the Prius hybrid and Lexus luxury model, has also been plagued by a massive quality crisis, resulting in the recall of nine million vehicles around the world since October, mainly in the U.S. for problems such as gas pedal defects and braking software glitches.
Toyota has said it is stalling plans on the Mississippi plant until it feels demand has recovered.
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/markets/headline_news/article.jsp?content=b3676793