News & Information
November 18, 2008
Latest Toyota News
by NE MS Daily Journal
Tupelo, MS
Toyota's official statement
- "The millions of dollars already spent to complete building construction is a strong indicator of our ongoing commitment to this project. Toyota Mississippi will build the Prius, one of the hottest cars on the market today and whose popularity will only become stronger in the future."
BY DENNIS SEID AND CARLIE KOLLATH
Daily Journal
TUPELO - Toyota Motor Co. hasn't made any firm decision to postpone the opening of its Mississippi plant, company officials said Thursday.
The statement came in response to a report on The Nikkei Web site that Toyota "may delay building" the Prius plant near Blue Springs to 2011 or later. The Japanese business daily did not cite any sources for the information.
But Toyota officials in the U.S. say no decision has been made.
"A couple weeks ago we were instructed to look at all operations on a global standpoint because the economy is so bad," said Mike Goss, external affairs manager for Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America. "We have not made any decision about delaying."
The $1.3 billion Toyota Motor Manufacturing Mississippi plant is under construction and is scheduled to build the Prius hybrid starting in late 2010. Production has been delayed twice already.
Toyota originally had hoped the plant, which was going to build the Highlander crossover SUV, to open in late 2009, but in May pushed it to spring 2010.
In July, the automaker announced a restructuring of its North American manufacturing operations, shifting Highlander production to its Indiana plant, which makes Tundra trucks, Sequoia SUVs and Sienna minivans.
Tundra production will be shifted to San Antonio. The restructuring plan, a first for Toyota, also forced the automaker to push Prius production to late 2010.
Any further delays, however, are speculation at this point.
David Copenhaver, vice president of administration for TMMMS, echoed Goss.
"No decisions have been made in the delay of starting production in Mississippi," Copenhaver said. "Our plans for Mississippi haven't changed. We've invested millions of dollars on construction of the plant. Regardless of what The Nikkei reports, no decisions have been made."
The auto industry has been slammed by weak demand and a credit crunch. U.S. sales in October hit a 17-year low, falling 32 percent overall. Toyota hasn't been immune to the slowdown.
Last week, Toyota slashed its profit forecast for the fiscal year ending in March, to about $5.3 billion. That's down from an earlier forecast of $12 billion. Toyota earned $15 billion a year earlier.
Toyota also said it would try to cut costs and adjust production.
Said Copenhaver: "It's very normal for Toyota to look at all operations on a worldwide basis."
State officials, including Gov. Haley Barbour, said they haven't heard anything about a potential delay.
David Rumbarger, president of the Community Development Foundation in Tupelo, said the report in The Nikkei was speculation.
"Local officials would be told first of something like this, and we haven't heard anything," he said. "This is pure speculation by an industry analyst. Anytime there's uncertainty in the economy, people will speculate."
Appeared originally in the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, 11/14/2008, section A , page 1
