Toyota To Procure More Chinese Auto Parts

Autoparts Report, April 20, 2002

Toyota Motor Corp. said it will buy some Chinese parts to make cars in its operations in China as a way to cut costs and will become the first Japanese automaker to use Chinese steel sheet, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said. The newspaper said that Toyota, which along with Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. is increasingly using China as a production base, would be able to save around 30 percent of costs by procuring locally.

The newspaper said Toyota would procure discount door parts and materials including steel sheet from China's leading steelmaker, Shanghai Baoshan Iron & Steel. The company will also consider procuring surface-processed steel sheet used for auto bodies, the business daily said.

Beginning in October 2002, Toyota will use steel supplied by Shanghai Boashan for subcompacts based on the Toyota Platz model to be produced with Tianjin Automotive Xiali Co., it said. The two automakers plan to produce 30,000 of the subcompacts a year, using 2,000 to 3,000 metric tons of the interior steel sheet from Shanghai Baoshan, the newspaper said.