From June Light & Medium Truck magazine:
Report: Toyota May Slow U.S. Plant Builds
Toyota Motor Corp. is concerned that it has built too many factories in the United States and is considering a slowdown in its plans for further plant building here, according to a newspaper report Wednesday, The Associated Press said.
Although Toyota's U.S. sales continue to grow, executives worry about an uncertain outlook, The Wall Street Journal reported, according to AP.
In addition, a cheap yen has made it more profitable for the company to produce cars in Japan and ship them to the U.S., according to a senior executive and management-board member the Journal didn't identify by name, AP said.
Tomomi Imai, a spokesman for Toyota in Tokyo, declined to comment on the report, AP said.
Despite the reported concerns about U.S. production expansion, the U.S. likely is to remain one of Toyota's most profitable markets, AP said. A recent shift to more fuel-efficient cars has helped increase Toyota's U.S. sales even as Detroit's automakers struggle.
In Japan, some of Toyota's plants are capable of building more than a half-dozen different vehicles. In North America, several of them build just one or two models, making them somewhat inflexible to adjust to sudden swings in demand, AP said. L&MT