New Toyota Production Plant

[eastsider]

Toyota Motor Corp. announced today it will invest an additional $50 million in its San Antonio Tundra plant in order to increase production by 50,000 vehicles

[eastsider]

More on yesterdays announcement by Toyota about their expansion of the new manufacturing plant:

"This does not mean that we would necessarily add jobs," McDaniel said. "We're making provisions in the event that we do need that additional capacity. It makes sense to do that right now. While $50 million is substantial, it would be much more costly if we waited until the plant was up and running one or two years down the road."

Most of the $50 million will go into equipment that will be used to build the trucks. There will be no need to increase the size of the building.

San Antonio Express-News: Toyota already revving up production at S.A. plant

[eastsider]

The offices for the Toyota Truck plants have opened and about 200 employees have moved in from the temporary offices that were located at KellyUSA.

San Antonio Express-News: Toyota plant office open for business

[eastsider]

A study released yesterday by the Center for Automotive Research show that the new Toyota Tundra Plant will create 9,000 jobs, including spinoff jobs, and have $460 million in annual payroll. Experts say these numbers are conservative as the study uses 2003 figures, the plant has expanded production numbers several times since then, and full-size pickup trucks are still popular.

San Antonio Express-News: S.A. has windfall in Toyota

[cowboytx26]

I wonder if this means our days of cheap housing in San Antonio are numbered.

[eastsider]

The Toyota Motor Plant in Huntsville, Alabama began production of V6 engines for the Tundra plant that will open in San Antonio next year.

San Antonio Business Journal: Toyota jump starts production of V6 engines

[monsoon]

I wonder what the very high gasoline prices are going to mean to the newer larger Tundra that will be built in that plant.

[eastsider]

^ It should be interesting to see what happens, I heard on the radio that GM plans to cut back production on SUV's.

[eastsider]

The Toyota dealer's annual conference will be held in San Antonio next September, which is about a month before the first 2007 Tundra rolls off the assembly line. The event is expected to bring about 5,000 people to the city.

Schmees would not say how much revenue this event could generate for San Antonio, as the contracts for the meeting have not been signed. But she did say it would be big dollars.

"These people are used to getting together after the conventions and going out to different nightclubs and restaurants," she said. "There's a lot of spinoff business. They are a group that loves to socialize."

San Antonio Express-News: Toyota dealers to meet in S.A.

[eastsider]

Three more suppliers have announced that they will be building facilities adjacent to the new Toyota Tundra plant. The new comapnies are Kautex (manufactures gas tanks), Metokote Corp (makes coatings for components), and Tokai Rika Group (assembles steering wheels and switches). Combined, these three companies will add an additional $150 million of investment to the site and will create up to 600 new jobs.

San Antonio Express-News: Toyota pickup site picks up 600 additional jobs

San Antonio Business Journal: Three suppliers added at Toyota plant

[eastsider]

The Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas president gave an update yesterday to the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce. Most of the hiring will be done over the next 12-18 months, but they have already received 100,000 job applications for the 2,000 jobs Toyota is expected to fill.

San Antonio Express-News: Chamber gets Toyota update

[eastsider]

Toyota sold 7,300 Tundra trucks in September, over 1,700 less than in the same month of last year.

Less flattering were Tundra sales, which are particularly important to San Antonio. They were down nearly 22 percent in September compared to a year ago.

Toyota officials are not alarmed. Part of that confidence is based on the fact that year-to-date through September, Tundra sales were up 10.7 percent compared to 2004.

Ford and General Motors also saw declining truck sales.

San Antonio Business Journal: Toyota's Tundra truck sales take a steep September fall

[eastsider]

All of the steel used in the production of the Toyota Tundras will be handled by Millennium Steel of Texas.

In San Antonio, Millennium will have the equipment to cut the blanks. So instead of sending rolls of steel into the plant, it can send the blanks so Toyota won't have to cut them.

Those pieces that then get cut out, say to make a floorboard or a fender, will be gathered into two stories of container space under the stamping floor. Those containers will be shipped over to Green Metals, which will compress the scrap into steel cubes and send them off to be recycled back into steel. Those pieces may eventually find their way back to the Toyota plant.

It's part of Toyota's plan to have the plant generate zero landfill waste.

San Antonio Express-News:

Firm will handle steel going into, out of Toyota plant

[eastsider]

The Toyota plant has more than lived up to the expectations of the economic impact it would have on south San Antonio. The construction of the plant alone is estimated to have had a $600M impact. Also, 21 suppliers have made plans to build facilities on site. A total of 10,000 new jobs could be created under the influence of Toyota a year after the plant opens.

All of the new workers will fuel demand for housing, retail, and shcools in the area. A couple large mixed-use developments have been announced in south SA and more land is being purchased for more developments.

San Antonio Business Journal: Living up to the hype

[mcheiss]

^Any Ideas on what suppliers are planning on building next to Toyota?

[eastsider]

^Any Ideas on what suppliers are planning on building next to Toyota?

http://www.toyota.com/about/news/manufactu...16-1-perry.html

This is the news release from last year listing the first 18 on-site suppliers. The last three added a couple months ago are listed on post #10 of this thread.

[mcheiss]

Thanks eastsider!!!

[eastsider]

Sumitomo Electric Wiring Systems has announced that it will open a 87,000 sf distribution facility near the new Toyota plant and will employ about 20 people.

Sumitomo makes power distribution systems for the automotive industry, and Toyota is one of its clients. It will supply the San Antonio truck plant with wire harnesses, which carry all signals and electrical power through Tundra trucks.

San Antonio Express-News: Toyota draws another parts supplier to the city

San Antonio Business Journal: Toyota supplier opens new distribution center in San Antonio

[eastsider]

The Toyota Production Plant should be fully functionial by late summer and the first Tundra could roll off the line as soon as 10 months from now.

Between now and then there will be a number of tests run on the processes and the equipment and training for team members. Test vehicles and test parts will be the first things built.

Meanwhile, outside the plant, suppliers will be doing the same thing, assembling parts to test their processes and working out the kinks in getting supplies over to the plant.

San Antonio Express-News: First S.A.-made Toyota Tundra is not that far away

[eastsider]

The first Tundra to roll off the line at the new San Antonio plant will take place on November 17th. Trucks built at the facility will start arriving at dealerships in January. So far 800 of the 2,000 positions at the plant have been fill, with the final phase of hiring currently under way.

San Antonio Express-News: San Antonio-built Toyota Tundra to debut Nov. 17

[eastsider]

Could more be in store for the Toyota San Antonio plant?

Company officials speaking on the condition of anonymity said they're considering building a new plant in one of four Southern states or possibly expanding the $850 million truck manufacturing facility here.

Some positives for future expansion of the plant are a two-phase incentive plan from the state and local government to help pay the expense of training new employees, the 20-acre site has plenty of room for expansion, and 21 suppliers are located on site. Toyota did announce earlier this week that the San Antonio facility will build 3/4-ton and one-ton heavy duty trucks there.

San Antonio Express-News: S.A. hopes for bigger future with Toyota

[eastsider]

The first batch of Tundras have come off the line for testing and more will be coming later this month. The new production plant will start full production on November 17th. Toyota could be facing some serious challenges in the market though as Chevy will also be introducing the new Silverado this fall.

Dallas Morning News: Toyota rolls into battle

[eastsider]

It has been discovered that Toyota and 11 on-site suppliers have a phase II plans in the documents filed with the city. It is estimated that 4,000 additional jobs could be added if Toyota and its suppliers expanded. Toyota hasn't annouced anything, but it has been speculated for a couple months that the auto company will announce plans for another plant in the U.S., with the likely location being a southern state.

Toyota has long said it would expand its Texas plant if market conditions warranted. But the buildings marked with tiny dotted lines on plans filed with the city are the first evidence that expansion is more than just talk.

Still, Toyota and suppliers aren't talking much.

San Antonio Express-News: Toyota has outline for larger plant

[eastsider]

The first Toyota Tundra pickup will roll off the line at the new production plant on Friday. Toyota is calling the 2007 Tundra the most important product launch in their companys' history.

"I think this will be the beginning of Toyota's incursion into the last domestically owned segment in the market," said Karl Brauer, editor-in-chief of the automotive comparison Web site Edmunds.com.

Edmunds has already dubbed the 2007 Tundra the most significant vehicle of the year, even though consumers won't find them at their local dealership until February.

[eastsider]

A ceremony was held Friday morning as the first Tundras to be assembled at the new plant were unveiled.

Team members began filing into the area of the unveiling around 9:30 a.m. after arriving at work three hours earlier. They hammed it up for the grove of news cameras that seemed evenly divided between Japanese and North American media.

A Toyota-built robot got things started with two trumpet solos and a wave to the crowd.