KUALA LUMPUR: Toyota Motor Corp plans to build a new plant in Malaysia worth more than RM1 billion with local partner UMW Holdings Bhd to cater to future demand in the country.
Japan’s Nikkei business daily reported that the new facility would be built by UMW Toyota Motor Sdn Bhd, a joint venture between Toyota Tsusho and UMW Holdings.
The 30 billion yen (RM1.1 billion) facility is slated to come online as early as 2018, churning out 50,000 vehicles a year.
It would produce small cars, with annual capacity potentially rising to 100,000 vehicles, said the report.
New vehicles sales in Malaysia totalled 660,000 units last year, the third highest in the region after Indonesia and Thailand.
Some expect Malaysia’s annual sales to climb to 800,000.
UMW Group, Toyota and UMW Toyota Motor are expected to make an official announcement next Wednesday.
The report also said Toyota planned to build new plants in Guangzhou, China, next year and in Mexico in 2019. The Mexican plant will serve the North American markets.
Malaysia-assembled Toyota vehicles are built at UMW Toyota Motor subsidiary Assembly Services Sdn Bhd’s (ASSB) plant in Shah Alam.
One of the oldest automotive assembly plants in Malaysia, it produces some 90,000 vehicles a year.
Officially opened in 1968, the plant had over the years assembled a variety of makes such as Audi, Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen, Vauxhalll, Chevrolet, Land Rover, Renault, Hino and Daihatsu. By 1982, it started to rationalise production and focused primarily on Toyota, Hino and Daihatsu.
From the initial volume of around 11,500 units a year in the late 1960s, ASSB produced its 300,000th vehicle in August 1990.
Today, the ASSB plant assembles Toyota Vios, Camry (including Camry Hybrid), Fortuner, Hilux, Innova and Hiace models. It also produces Hino trucks and exports certain Hiace models to Thailand.
ASSB is the only plant in Toyota’s worldwide network of production facilities to assemble such a diverse variety of models.
UMW Toyota Motor also has three other plants in Shah Alam — Toyota Auto Body that stamps metal body panels, Automotive Industries Sdn Bhd that makes exhausts and components for instrument panels, and Toyota Boshoku that makes seat frames.