Half A Million Turkey Exports In Time For Christmas
Toyota kicked off the festive season by celebrating production of the 500,000th vehicle manufactured at its plant in Adapazari, Turkey. The seven-seat Corolla Verso rolled off Toyota Motor Manufacturing Turkey’s (TMMT) line yesterday (1 December) in front of a gathering of representatives from government, local communities, suppliers and Toyota executives from Japan and Europe.
The plant is so successful that it became Turkey’s leading exporter in 2004 and in 2005 expects to produce approximately 140,000 vehicles for Europe, with an export value of more than £1.4 billion. The plant has a maximum annual capacity of 150,000 vehicles, employs 3,500 people and represents an investment of £511 million.
Toyota has eight manufacturing plants in six countries across Europe, including two in the UK. For 2005, Toyota plans to produce 635,000 cars, 541,000 engines and 259,000 transmissions in Europe and sell 980,000 vehicles, which would mark the company’s eighth consecutive year of record sales.
ENDS