xcel
09-17-2006, 07:28 PM
Japanese automaker expanding as U.S.’s Big Three are reeling. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14880301)
AP - Sept. 16, 2006
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Toyota_President_Katsuaki_Watanabe.jpg
Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe w/ the class leading Camry leading the automaker to No. 1.
TOKYO - Toyota Motor Corp. is quickening its quest to unseat ailing rival General Motors Corp. as the world's biggest automaker and widen its lead over Ford Motor Co. with reported plans to boost overseas production by 40 percent to 5 million vehicles by 2008 and blueprints for higher output in North America.
The news comes just days after Ford announced drastic steps to remold into a smaller, more competitive company, slashing thousands of jobs and shuttering two plants to cut costs. Ford's overhaul was aired just as DaimlerChrysler said it would cut U.S. production through the rest of 2006 and follows big cutbacks at GM earlier this year.
Toyota, by contrast, is planning to increase overseas production by 40 percent of its 2005 level to 5 million vehicles by 2008, Japan's Nihon Keizai newspaper reported Sunday, without saying how it got the information.
In North America alone, the world's largest auto market, the Japanese company intends to raise production by 20 percent to 1.84 million vehicles in that period, the business newspaper reported. The Toyota City-based company aims to meet the target with the help of new plants previously planned for Texas and Canada, it said.
The vastly different outlooks underline the diverging fates of Japanese and American automakers. While U.S. competitors are closing plants, letting workers go, and trimming production amid weak sales, Japanese manufacturers, including Toyota and Honda Motor Co., are posting record earnings and cranking output to keep up with demand.
AP - Sept. 16, 2006
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Toyota_President_Katsuaki_Watanabe.jpg
Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe w/ the class leading Camry leading the automaker to No. 1.
TOKYO - Toyota Motor Corp. is quickening its quest to unseat ailing rival General Motors Corp. as the world's biggest automaker and widen its lead over Ford Motor Co. with reported plans to boost overseas production by 40 percent to 5 million vehicles by 2008 and blueprints for higher output in North America.
The news comes just days after Ford announced drastic steps to remold into a smaller, more competitive company, slashing thousands of jobs and shuttering two plants to cut costs. Ford's overhaul was aired just as DaimlerChrysler said it would cut U.S. production through the rest of 2006 and follows big cutbacks at GM earlier this year.
Toyota, by contrast, is planning to increase overseas production by 40 percent of its 2005 level to 5 million vehicles by 2008, Japan's Nihon Keizai newspaper reported Sunday, without saying how it got the information.
In North America alone, the world's largest auto market, the Japanese company intends to raise production by 20 percent to 1.84 million vehicles in that period, the business newspaper reported. The Toyota City-based company aims to meet the target with the help of new plants previously planned for Texas and Canada, it said.
The vastly different outlooks underline the diverging fates of Japanese and American automakers. While U.S. competitors are closing plants, letting workers go, and trimming production amid weak sales, Japanese manufacturers, including Toyota and Honda Motor Co., are posting record earnings and cranking output to keep up with demand.