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Title: Recalls add to Toyota's US overcapacity woes (6,880 Jobs "suspended")
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Published: Feb 20, 2010
Author: STAFF
Post Date: 2010-02-20 18:22:23 by Nebuchadnezzar
Keywords: None
Views: 122
Comments: 1
Recalls add to Toyota's US overcapacity woes 19 Feb 2010, 1438 hrs IST, AGENCIES NEW YORK: Toyota's massive recalls are adding to the Japanese automaker's overcapacity problems in the United States, where it plans to halt production at two plants and may need to take additional cuts. "Toyota has too much manufacturing capacity in the United States," said David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research. Toyota, which owns manufacturing operations at 14 US sites, employs a workforce of 33,400 in the country and indirectly generates about 163,000 jobs. The global auto industry leader announced this week that it would suspend output on February 26 at a Kentucky plant that employs 6,885 people, with an additional three days during the March-April period possible. Its Texas plant, which has 1,850 workers and makes Tundra pickup trucks, will suspend production the weeks beginning March 15 and April 12. The employees of the two plants will continue to be paid. During the suspension, they have the option to participate in training and "plant improvement activities," take paid vacation or unpaid leave, the company said. The master of lean production systems explained it was taking the measures "to keep inventory at acceptable levels" as it recalls almost nine million vehicles worldwide, including six million in the US. Toyota had previously announced it was closing a California plant that it initially co-owned with General Motors, setting off an outcry over the direct loss of more than 4,700 jobs and the impact on suppliers. The Texas plant "never produced as much as they had hoped," said Rebecca Lindland, analyst at IHS Global Insight, who pointed out the plant had operated at only 56 percent capacity in 2009. Toyota also owns a factory in Mississippi that opened in 2007 and which has never built a car because of the recession's bite on consumer demand. The Japanese automaker operates on "five-year plans" and "they didn't adjust the plan when the circumstances began to change," said Cole. No automakers had their production at 100 percent in 2009, an annus horribilis for the auto industry, he added. But for Toyota, "the recall and the negative publicity" would affect sales, he said. The company is set to publish US February sales numbers in early March. "If there is a dramatic reduction in Toyota volumes long term," the carmaker could reduce its US output even further, Cole said. In any case, he said, Toyota "is likely to not hire for a long time" although US rivals like GM have begun adding workers amid an apparent rise in consumer demand as the economy emerges from deep recession. But Michelle Krebs, analyst at the specialist website Edmunds.com, noted that "plants are long-term investments" and Toyota was unlikely to announce plant closings, even for the idle facility in Mississippi. IHS Global Insight's Lindland predicted a revival in auto sales as the troubled US housing sector recovers amid economic growth. "We are expecting the large pickup (truck) market to come back in the next couple of years as the housing market comes back," she said.
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#1. To: All (#0)
Right, when the "housing market comes back." How many millions will be lost on this lame-ass bet? Goldi-Lox: You're one dumb-fucking bitch.
"We are expecting the large pickup (truck) market to come back in the next couple of years as the housing market comes back," she said.
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