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01-07-2006, 09:50 AM
Toyota Motor Corp. is moving steadily closer to its goal of unseating General Motors Corp. as the world's leading automaker.
In fact, with General Motors preparing to slash production capacity in North America by one million units over the next three years,Toyota is actually running ahead of the ambitious schedule laid out in the 2010 Global Vision document that the Japanese automaker published in the spring of 2002.
Right now the consensus is that GM will hang on to the top spot for 2006 - but after that, Toyota will replace the company on the charts.
"We aren't forecasting that Toyota will surpass GM next year," says John Tews of J.D. Power & Associates. Greg Gardner of Harbour Consulting noted that Toyota is expected to build 8.1 million vehicles this year, while GM's worldwide production will reach nine million units.
However, Toyota, which has already edged out the Ford Motor Co. to become the world's second-largest automaker, is moving steadily closer to GM. Only two days after GM announced it planned to close nine factories and eliminate 30,000 jobs by the end of 2008, the Japanese press reported that Toyota was pressing Fuji Heavy Industries to start building Toyotas in 2007 in a Lafayette, Ind., assembly plant. The underutilized Indiana plant is operated by Fuji's wholly owned subsidiary, Subaru.
Up until last month, the plant had been slated to build Saabs for General Motors starting in 2007. However, GM recently sold off its 20-percent stake in Fuji to Toyota. In addition, Toyota now harvests more than 75 percent of the vehicles built by New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. in Fremont, Calif., which was supposed to be a 50-50 joint venture when it was organized back in the early 1980s. For the last several years, however, Toyota has been taking a larger share of the production.
The new cuts follow GM's shutdown earlier of assembly plants in Linden, N.J.; Baltimore; and Lansing. The closing of the three plants had been planned for some time and the Lansing plant is being partially replaced by a new, long-delayed assembly plant that is slated to open next summer. Nevertheless, when all the cuts are finally complete GM will have reduced its production capacity by 30 percent to around 4.2 million units - and outside analysts are clamoring for even more cuts.
GM has been the world's largest automaker for 73 consecutive years and being number one has been critical component of GM's identity and corporate culture. GM chief executive officer Richard Wagoner has said he expects to remain on top. But GM's recent problems, including financial losses of $4 billion through the first nine months and the bankruptcy of Delphi Corp., have opened the door for Toyota, which seems eager to push on through despite concerns of a backlash in the U.S. market.
The plant closings also leave GM increasingly dependent on sales in China and South and Southeast Asia for holding off Toyota's very determined bid to become the world's largest automaker. In fact, GM now expects to sell more cars abroad this year than it does in North America for the first time in the company's history.
Pushing Toyota closer to GM is the larger company's sales slump. Merrill Lynch predicts that GM's sales have fallen for the fourth consecutive month during November, dropping an estimated fifteen percent due to the ongoing slump in sales of SUVs.
Toyota, meanwhile, continues to increase sales and is expanding. It had 1.44 million units of production capacity in North America last year but is adding a new plant in San Antonio, where it plans to start building a new pickup truck next year. The Japanese automaker also has broken ground for a new assembly plant in Ontario for building RAV4s starting in 2008, about the time GM is scheduled to complete its latest round of plant closings.
In addition, Toyota also is pushing into the Chinese market, where it has added production of the popular Corolla, and has recently opened a plant in the Czech Republic. In addition, the company's 2005 annual report noted that Toyota had recently established a Global Production Center to train personnel both in Japan and overseas in the Toyota way.
Source: TheCarConnection
In fact, with General Motors preparing to slash production capacity in North America by one million units over the next three years,Toyota is actually running ahead of the ambitious schedule laid out in the 2010 Global Vision document that the Japanese automaker published in the spring of 2002.
Right now the consensus is that GM will hang on to the top spot for 2006 - but after that, Toyota will replace the company on the charts.
"We aren't forecasting that Toyota will surpass GM next year," says John Tews of J.D. Power & Associates. Greg Gardner of Harbour Consulting noted that Toyota is expected to build 8.1 million vehicles this year, while GM's worldwide production will reach nine million units.
However, Toyota, which has already edged out the Ford Motor Co. to become the world's second-largest automaker, is moving steadily closer to GM. Only two days after GM announced it planned to close nine factories and eliminate 30,000 jobs by the end of 2008, the Japanese press reported that Toyota was pressing Fuji Heavy Industries to start building Toyotas in 2007 in a Lafayette, Ind., assembly plant. The underutilized Indiana plant is operated by Fuji's wholly owned subsidiary, Subaru.
Up until last month, the plant had been slated to build Saabs for General Motors starting in 2007. However, GM recently sold off its 20-percent stake in Fuji to Toyota. In addition, Toyota now harvests more than 75 percent of the vehicles built by New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. in Fremont, Calif., which was supposed to be a 50-50 joint venture when it was organized back in the early 1980s. For the last several years, however, Toyota has been taking a larger share of the production.
The new cuts follow GM's shutdown earlier of assembly plants in Linden, N.J.; Baltimore; and Lansing. The closing of the three plants had been planned for some time and the Lansing plant is being partially replaced by a new, long-delayed assembly plant that is slated to open next summer. Nevertheless, when all the cuts are finally complete GM will have reduced its production capacity by 30 percent to around 4.2 million units - and outside analysts are clamoring for even more cuts.
GM has been the world's largest automaker for 73 consecutive years and being number one has been critical component of GM's identity and corporate culture. GM chief executive officer Richard Wagoner has said he expects to remain on top. But GM's recent problems, including financial losses of $4 billion through the first nine months and the bankruptcy of Delphi Corp., have opened the door for Toyota, which seems eager to push on through despite concerns of a backlash in the U.S. market.
The plant closings also leave GM increasingly dependent on sales in China and South and Southeast Asia for holding off Toyota's very determined bid to become the world's largest automaker. In fact, GM now expects to sell more cars abroad this year than it does in North America for the first time in the company's history.
Pushing Toyota closer to GM is the larger company's sales slump. Merrill Lynch predicts that GM's sales have fallen for the fourth consecutive month during November, dropping an estimated fifteen percent due to the ongoing slump in sales of SUVs.
Toyota, meanwhile, continues to increase sales and is expanding. It had 1.44 million units of production capacity in North America last year but is adding a new plant in San Antonio, where it plans to start building a new pickup truck next year. The Japanese automaker also has broken ground for a new assembly plant in Ontario for building RAV4s starting in 2008, about the time GM is scheduled to complete its latest round of plant closings.
In addition, Toyota also is pushing into the Chinese market, where it has added production of the popular Corolla, and has recently opened a plant in the Czech Republic. In addition, the company's 2005 annual report noted that Toyota had recently established a Global Production Center to train personnel both in Japan and overseas in the Toyota way.
Source: TheCarConnection