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The eBearing News
October 27, 2003
NSK Wins Major
Toyota Truck Contract
copyright © 2003 eBearing Inc.
NSK Ltd. (Japan) has won a major new contract with Toyota Motor Corp. (Japan),
to supply virtually all of the transmission, cooling system and driveline bearings
for the new high-volume Hilux line of pickup trucks being produced in Thailand.
Toyota is shifting all Japanese production of pickup trucks, now handled by its Hino
subsidiary, to an expanded plant in Samrut Prakan, Thailand. Toyota produced 122,000 Hilux pickups
at one Hino plant in Tokyo alone. Pickup truck production was relocated to Thailand in late 2002.
Toyota has budgeted investing more than USD $720 million at Samrut Prakan to implement its
global sourcing project and increase Hilux truck
capacity from 90,000 units to over 200,000 units per year. In addition, the company
is spending more than $65 million on a new Research and Development facility in Bangkok.
Winning the Hilux contract means NSK must now invest heavily at to meet the dramatic
increase in demand. NSK Bearings Manufacturing (Thailand) Co. Ltd.'s
bearing plant in Chonburi is undergoing a major expansion project, projected to cost
at least $9.3 million. The expansion
will more than triple the plant's bearing production capacity, to over 11 million sets per year,
by mid-2004.
Toyota has been involved in Thailand since 1957, when it became the company's first foreign
investment location. Toyota cars were built there in 1964, from complete kits. Today, Toyota Motor
Thailand Ltd. holds a 35% market share in the country, celebrating 25 years as its top-selling
auto and truck brand. While the overall vehicle market in Thailand grew 37% last year, to over 400,000
units, Toyota had a 56% Thai sales increase, to over 130,000 vehicles. In 2003, Toyota expects
Thai sales to grow another 19%, to over 155,000 units.
After internal Thai demand, the country is the largest ASEAN vehicle exporter. Toyota's primary export
markets for the new Hilux pickup trucks will be Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Taiwan.
The Thai government has many incentive programs in place, encouraging auto manufacturers to position
the country as a global production center for motorcycles and trucks. The government
offers economic incentives for ASEAN free-trade country exporters, to encourage
R&D spending, and foster the development of Tier 2 and Tier 3 automotive suppliers.
The programs are working, leveraged by the fast-growing demand in Thailand itself. In addition to NSK,
there are now more than 380 Tier 1 auto industry
suppliers in the country, and over 800 Tier 2 and Tier 3 vendors.
Recently, additional investment incentives became available for Thailand's more desirable Zone 1 and
Zone 2 areas around greater Bangkok -- areas which include Toyota's and NSK's plants.
Toyota Motor Thailand's President, Ryoichi Sasaki, said Toyota Thailand currently produces the
Hilux truck, Vios passenger cars, Hilux pickup truck engines, Camry parts and bodies for export
to other Toyota facilities in the region. The Thai facility imports transmissions from the
Philippines and gas engines from Indonesia. In 2003, for example, over 240,000 Toyota diesel engines will
be produced in Thailand, 130,000 of them for export to its other factories.
In the region, Toyota has factories in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam,
Taiwan and China, employing over 26,000 people.
The new Toyota Innovative International Multipurpose Vehicle (IMV) project, along with strong incentives
offered by the Thai government to automakers, are driving the shift to Thailand. The IMV project links
various vendors overseas as a global supply network. Mr. Sasaki said, "We will create a regional network
of suppliers to complement our existing capacities in ASEAN and Toyota group resources."
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printer-friendly version
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- by Bruce A. Carr
from individual research,
tips and commercial sources.
Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.
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eBearing.com ... for everything that moves™
Entire contents Copyright 1999-2008, eBearing Inc. All rights reserved.
eBearing.com and "... for everything that moves" are registered
trademarks of eBearing Inc.
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eBearing.com ... for everything that moves™
Entire contents Copyright © 1999-2008, eBearing Inc. All rights reserved.
eBearing.com and "... for everything that moves" are registered trademarks of eBearing Inc.
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