The final nail was pounded into the coffin containing Australia's auto manufacturing industry this morning. Market-leader Toyota confirmed that it will follow examples set by General Motors and Ford and cease local vehicle production by the end of 2017. With Toyota President Akio Toyoda in attendance, the decision was announced by Toyota Australia CEO Max Yasuda at the company's manufacturing plant in Altona, on the outskirts of Melbourne.
"We did everything that we could to transform our business, but the reality is that there are too many factors beyond our control that make it unviable to build cars in Australia," Yasuda said. "Although the company has made profits in the past, our manufacturing operations have continued to be loss-making, despite our best efforts."
Although there have been claims that the closure could have been avoided, sources within Toyota have told Car and Driver the company's departure was virtually a foregone conclusion following Holden's announcement in December, with many suppliers requiring the scale of both companies to remain viable.
Toyota's Australian operation, which began assembling cars in 1963, is the company's longest-running production facility outside Japan. Remarkably, it is believed to be only the third plant closed by the company in its history, following the shuttering of a line in New Zealand in 1998, and the withdrawal from the joint-venture GM NUMMI facility in 2010.
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With Toyota's decision, attention has now turned to the broader economic impacts of the three closures in short succession. The direct effect of Toyota's decision is the loss of around 2500 jobs, but the collapse of the industry's supply chain has the potential to be swift and brutal after the automakers shut up shop, with estimates of the total number of jobs to be lost ranging anywhere between 25,000 and 50,000.
from Car and Driver Blog http://ift.tt/nSHy27
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