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Report: Toyota plans new Canadian plant
Japanese business paper reports Toyota plans to spend $463M to build seventh North American plant.
May 30, 2005: 8:34 AM EDT
TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp. plans to build another plant in Canada, its seventh in North America, to produce 100,000 to 150,000 subcompact cars a year by as early as 2008, the Nihon Keizai business daily reported on Monday.
The world's second-largest auto maker plans to spend about 50 billion yen, or $463 million, to build the plant near its existing Canadian facility in the province of Ontario, the newspaper said.
A spokesman for Toyota (Research) said no details had been decided, but added: "We realize we need new plants to expand our sales further."
The maker of the Camry sedan, the best selling U.S. car model, as well as the Prius hybrid is investing aggressively in new plants and vehicle technology, chasing profitable growth in all markets, including the United States, as General Motors Corp. (Research) and Ford Motor Co. (Research) lose U.S. market share.
In the past month alone, Toyota announced plans to build new factories or expand existing ones in Russia, Thailand and Indonesia, and is reported to be considering a new plant in China.
The Toyota group's combined market share in the U.S. in April rose to 14 percent, up from 11.7 percent a year earlier.
The Nihon Keizai said Toyota had considered building its new plant in the United States but selected Canada because of lower labor costs. The expectation of the Canadian location has been reported for a couple of months.
Last month, Canadian newspaper Globe and Mail reported that Toyota had zeroed in on a 1,000-acre site in Woodstock, Ontario for 600 million Canadian dollars, or US$477.7 million, car assembly plant that would create about 1,500 jobs.
The Asian Wall Street Journal said earlier this month that Toyota is finalizing plan to build a new plant in Ontario to produce small vehicles such as the Scion brand.
Meanwhile, Toyota has started investigating suitable sites in the United States or Mexico for its eighth North American plant, which it plans to start building by 2010, the report said.
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