Toyota to discontinue production in Australia by 2017

Things are looking quite gloomy for the Australian automobile industry, two big car manufacturers have decided to pull the plugs on manufacturing cars down under. In a third blow, Toyota announced they will stop production in Australia by end of 2017.

Max Yasuda, President and CEO, Toyota Australia said, "We did everything that we could to transform our business, but the reality is that there are too many factors beyond our control that make it unviable to build cars in Australia." 

The company manufactures the Camry, Camry hybrid, Aurion and four-cylinder engines at the facility in Australia. However, the Japanese car major will continue selling cars as a national sales and distribution company.  

"Our focus will now be to work with our employees, suppliers, government and the unions as we transition to a national sales and distribution company. Support services will be available to our employees and we will do everything that we can to minimise the impact of this decision on our employees and suppliers," Yasuda added.

Yasuda, in an official statement, also said the closure will affect 2,500 manufacturing employees and did not disclose the number of corporate workers. In a different take to it, an Australian newspaper suggests jobs of 24,000 workers at Australian auto suppliers could be in trouble. 

Toyota’s stop production initiative is not motivated by its peers GM and Ford stopping production nor by any single factor. The Australian currency, free-trade agreements and high cost of manufacturing as compared to low economies of scale for vehicle production were all factored into account before taking this big step.