Jun 15 2005
Toyota held an official ceremony to mark the start of construction today for Toyota manufacturing Russis - the new Toyota car manufacturing plant to be built in St. Petersburg's Shushary district and scheduled to start operations in December 2007.
Present at the ceremony were Russian President Vladimir Putin, Authorized Representative of the Russian Federation's President in the North-Western Federal District Ilya Klebanov, St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matvienko, as well as former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, who is also current co-chair of the Japan-Russia Wisemen's Council, Ambassador of Japan to the Russian Federation, Issei Nomura, and other Russian and Japanese officials. European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) President Jean Lemierre also attended the ceremony, which was hosted by TMC Chairman Hiroshi Okuda.
The new plant will have an initial annual production capacity of approximately 50,000 units, and, at the start of production, it will produce the Camry-a mainstream seller in Russia-at a pace of about 20,000 units a year. Those units are to be sold in Russia through OOO* "TOYOTA MOTOR" (TMR), TMC's Moscow-based sales company, which was established in July 2001 and now has 22 dealers and four service centers. It has not yet been decided what additional models may be produced, but in order to prepare for future expansion, Toyota has secured approximately 220 hectares of land.
An initial investment of approximately 15 billion yen (approximately 4 billion Russian rubles) is planned, along with the creation of approximately 500 local jobs. The EBRD will make an additional investment later.
After the ceremony, TMMR donated two ambulances to the city of St. Petersburg.
Last year in Russia, Toyota sold 47,000 vehicles through TMR and other trading companies. Models included the Toyota Camry, Corolla, Avensis, RAV4 and Land Cruiser 100, as well as Lexus-brand vehicles.
http://www.toyota.co.jp
Posted15th June 2005