- TOKYO: Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp.
- will build an engine plant for small passenger vehicles in Miyagi Prefecture, reviving a plan put on hold when the global financial crisis hit demand, business daily Nikkei said.
Overall investment in the plant, which will be able to assemble about 100,000 engines a year, is expected to be 30-40 billion yen ($379.5-$506 million). The capacity will later be expanded to about 300,000 units per year, the paper said.
Toyota’s fifth domestic engine plant will be the first in the Tohoku region — hit hardest by the March earthquake.
Its subsidiary Toyota Motor Tohoku Corp. will start building the plant this fall for about 3 billion yen, the paper reported.
The engines will be shipped to two group factories in the region — Central Motor Co’s plant in Miyagi and Kanto Auto Works Ltd’s facility in Iwate Prefecture, Nikkei said.
Toyota, which currently ships engines from western Japan to Tohoku, expects the plant to cut shipping costs, the daily said.