Toyota to build new $488M plant in Malaysia

May 25, 2016 – Toyota Motor Corp. says it has decided to build a new vehicle plant in Malaysia to meet rising local demand.

The new 2 billion ringgit ($488 million) plant will be built by Toyota and its local partner, UMW Corp. Toyota said Wednesday that the plant, to be built in the central state of Selangor, will have an initial capacity of around 50,000 units a year, doubling the company’s production volume in Malaysia to around 100,000 units a year.

UMWT says it will discontinue the manufacturing of passenger vehicles at its existing plant by early 2019, using that location instead as a dedicated commercial vehicle plant as the new plant will exclusively manufacture passenger vehicles.

According to the Japanese automaker, the new plant is the next step in Toyota’s efforts to create competitive plants using production technologies such as freely extensible lines and compact painting booths; features which will also be introduced in Toyota’s new Mexican plant and new Chinese line.

“In addition to introducing cutting edge production technologies, we will dedicate ourselves to developing the personnel who support the making of ever-better cars. By doing this, we will provide high quality vehicles to Malaysian customers through UMWT,” said Toyota managing officer Tatsuro Takami.

— With files from The Associated Press