Toyota to launch car production in Vladivostok in 2012-Nikkei.

TOKYO, February 10 (Itar-Tass) - The Toyota Company, in conjunction
with Mitsui and Sollers, will launch the production of cars in Vladivostok
in 2012, Japan's leading business daily Nikkei reported on Thursday.
The joint-venture company, under the project of which Toyota will
deliver car components and technologies, is planning annually to assemble
up to 30,000 cars -- one of off-road vehicle models -- at a car factory in
Vladivostok. The participants in the joint venture, the paper points out,
will discuss details of production and the shares of financial
participation later this month.
At the first stage, it is planned to make use of the Sollers
production capacities. Toyota will supply components for the assembly of
cars while the Mitsui trading and investment company will arrange the
delivery of the output by rail to other regions of the Russian Federation
(RF).
Toyota, Nikkei emphasizes, will become the first Japanese motor
company to turn out its output in the Far East of the RF. A decision by
the leader of the national and world automobile industry to joint the
project was made with due regard for Russian government programmes being
implemented in development of the region and for the promising nature of
Russia's automobile industry as a whole.
In the current fiscal year ending on March 31, Toyota is forecasting a
big growth of profit resultant of an increase in car sales inside the
country and abroad, including those in the RF. The company managers point
out that the increase in car sales in Japan, on the Asian market and in
Russia in recent months was the result of measures taken to cut spending.
Considering this, Toyota executives expect that the overall net profit of
all enterprises of the Group in the 2010 fiscal year will amount to
490,000 million yen ($6,000 million).
-0-pop/AST