HiLux factory back on line

Thailand plant running at 120 per cent of capacity ahead of June sales drive
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The Thailand factory that makes Toyota HiLux utilities – one of the top three selling vehicles in Australia – is in a race against time to meet the end of financial year rush for commercial vehicles.

After running at just 30 per cent of its production capacity following the restrictions in parts supply caused by Japan’s March 11 earthquake, the HiLux facility in Thailand has become the first Toyota factory in the world to return to full capacity.

Operations returned to normal on 23 May, the company said, and the first substantial HiLux shipments in two months are due to arrive in Australia before the end of June.

In the past two months, some Toyota dealers had been quoting HiLux delivery times of between three and six months and/or not discounting as sharply as they were prior to March 11, to ration the remaining vehicles in stock.

But Toyota Australia insists there are good stock levels of HiLuxes across the country, with “at least one month’s supply” already on the ground here.

“Individual stock levels may vary from dealer to dealer, but nationally we will have enough vehicles to go around [in June],” a Toyota Australia spokesman told the Carsales Network.

Toyota Australia is expecting two large HiLux shipments in June and July and is so confident about its ability to deliver that it is planning a retail advertising campaign to promote the vehicle.

The return to normal production comes as the HiLux faces its toughest year in decades; Australia’s top selling ute faces fresh competition from the Volkswagen Amarok at the premium end, Chinese Great Wall utes at the budget end, and all-new peers the Ford Ranger and Mazda BT50 which are due in September (about the same time a mildly facelifted HiLux is scheduled to go on sale).

A Toyota executive in Thailand told local newspaper, The Nation, that the HiLux factory would run at 120 per cent of its normal capacity in order to make up for lost time.

The Thailand factory normally runs 16 hours (two eight-hour shifts) per day, but the car maker planned to add three hours of overtime each day.

As reported earlier, the Camry plant in Altona is due to return to normal from next month and factories in North America are due to resume normal operations form July onwards.

Kyoichi Tanada, president of Toyota Motor Thailand, told the newspaper there were two key factors that helped the HiLux factory become the fastest manufacturing base to resume normal operations. About 95 per cent of parts for the HiLux are made in Thailand, and the company switched to alternate suppliers for the remaining Japanese parts within two weeks of the earthquake. Thailand is also one of Toyota’s biggest export bases, shipping HiLuxes to 110 countries.

"Our responsibility is not limited to Thailand but also to markets around the world. If Thailand was not Toyota's major export base, we may not have been the fastest producer of Toyota to resume normal operations. This is due to the strong support of our parent firm," Tanada told the paper.Read the latest Carsales

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