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Toyota Australia Posts Strong Profits

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#1 · (Edited)
Neil McDonald 20/07/05

TOYOTA Australia has pledged to increase its profit growth in coming years after last week reporting an after-tax profit of $76.6 million.

The result, for the 12 months ending March 31, compares with a $67.7 million after-tax profit for the same period last year.

Sales revenue for 2004-2005 fell slightly to $7.3 billion, compared with $7.4 million, due to a softening of export volumes and a weaker US dollar.

Capital expenditure increased by $44 million on the previous year to $177 million.

This expenditure included costs associated with improvements to Toyota’s Altona plant, particularly as preparations had begun for the production of the new Camry and Avalon models in 2006.

It also included information technology development and the relocation to its new Australian corporate headquarters at Port Melbourne.

Toyota Australia president Ted Okada said that although the result was satisfactory during a year of intense competition, it was his goal to increase the rate of profit growth during the next few years.

“Our overall sales performance was very strong during another year of record market sales and growth,” he said.

“Our dealer network achieved the number-one market position during 2004 even though we did not release any new vehicles during that period.”

Exports for the period reached 64,355 vehicles with a revenue contribution of
$1.1 billion.

“The appreciation of the Australian dollar during the period did place additional pressure on us as an exporter, however as always we continue to seek new export markets for our locally made Camry,” Mr Okada said.

During the reporting period, the Altona plant built 105,866 Camry and Avalon vehicles for domestic and export markets, compared to 114,933 the previous year.

During the calendar year 2004, Toyota sales reached 201,737.
This meant Toyota Australia was the third Toyota affi liate after the United States and Thailand to achieve 200,000 sales.

Other milestones for the year included the production of the two millionth locally built Toyota and the one millionth Camry. Toyota also exceeded the 400,000-export vehicle mark since its export program began in the 1990s.

During the period, Toyota Australia launched its sponsorship of the AFL and the Australian Paralympics team, developed national partnerships through Toyota Community Spirit and received the 2004 Victorian Premier’s Business Sustainability Award.

“This result is a tribute to our people who continue to push hard for improvement in spite of their achievements throughout the year,” Mr Okada said.

“All areas of the company have taken on the challenge of continuous improvement while managing limited resources.”

(www.goauto.com.au)

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

Toyota To Spend Up On Altona Plant

Ian Porter 21/07/05

Toyota is about to approve a big expansion of its Altona assembly operations at a time when much of the automotive industry is in retreat.

The parent company board will make a decision on the expansion by September.

Chiefs at Toyota Australia and Oceania division, of which Australia is a significant part, are confident the plan will be approved.

The expansion will lift output by about a third to more than 130,000 cars a year by 2007.

It will be greeted with some relief by the State Government, which has seen several parts makers collapse or signal a major contraction of operations in recent months.

Ion failed late last year and Trico and Icon have failed or called in the administrators since the last tariff reduction came into force on January 1 as the local car makers have switched their contracts to countries with low labour costs.

Toyota Australia wants to lift production by about 30 per cent to 130,000 units by 2007 and the plan will require capital investment of around $60 million, mainly for the rebuilding of the paint shop.

The company has a longer-range plan to raise output to 150,000 cars a year with a mixture of the new Camry, due in 2006, and a larger car built on the same structure or platform.

The extra cars to be made will be exported to Thailand, which now makes about 30,000 Camrys a year. Most of Toyota's production in Thailand is commercial vehicles, particularly the HiLux range, which is a big seller in Australia.

The expansion of exports from Altona would coincide with the decline in the Thai tariff on passenger cars enshrined in the free trade agreement between Thailand and Australia, the general manager of Toyota's Oceania department, Hajime Sakaguchi, said in Tokyo.

"The Thai FTA is not too fair," he said. "The Thais can export vehicles to Australia free, but the tariff on Australian-made vehicles going to Thailand will only gradually reduce over the next few years."

Mr Sakaguchi said Australia would have to demonstrate that it could reduce unit costs if the expansion went ahead, reassure head office that quality would not be affected and deliver stable industrial relations at the Altona plant.

He said the project was "very important" for the future of Altona, which no longer makes the cheapest Camry in the world.

It held that honour two years ago when the Australian dollar was worth less than US60¢, but the subsequent rise to about US75¢ has changed that ranking. Despite the dramatic currency fluctuation, the Australian Camry is not the most expensive in the world, with that honour resting with the US-made version.

The volatility of currencies generally was a major factor behind the group's policy of limiting exposure to changes in currency values by making cars as close to the customer as possible, rather than in the cheapest place possible, Mr Sakaguchi said.

(www.drive.com.au)

 
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#5 ·
Once again toyota takes a leaf out of big brother/australian(american/british) idol books and makes millions on vehicles whos passion lasts as long as there ad campaign. It sucks that copmanies loose money building cars with any sort of soul (Celica GT-4, Supra etc.) and recoup their expenses by jamming the worlds traffic arteries with automotive cholesterol (corolla, camry hiace tarago need I go on?) It just reiterates what I always say. Enthusiasts know what they want. Consumers wait to be told.
 
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