Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indonesia’s (TMMIN) second plant will open next spring with a production capacity of 70,000, which will grow to 120,000 at the beginning of 2014 according to the company. This is in addition to increased production at its No.1 Karawang Plant, which is due to boost annual production from 110,000 to 130,000 by next year.
The company is also purchasing 150 hectares of land near the Karawang plants for the construction of an engine plant to strengthen local procurement and respond to future demand increases expected with the growth of the Indonesian market.
In addition the Japanese carmaker is assigning vehicle production at its Toyota Auto Body plant to subsidiary P.T. Sugity Creatives (Indonesia) from December this year.
Toyota’s component subsidiary Denso is also proceeding with construction of new plants in the Fajar and Bekasi areas. The Bekasi plant is expected begin operations February 2014.
“In the Global Vision announced last year by TMC, we stated our intention to lift sales in emerging countries to 50% of Toyota’s total sales by the year 2015,” said a spokesperson for the company. “For Toyota, the ASEAN market is a particularly important region among emerging markets [and] holds great promise for the future, due to its stable economic growth, prosperous population, and high quality workforce.
The increase is good news for the supply chain with TMMIN already supplied by almost 100 tier 1 suppliers in Indonesia and the with Innova model accounting for 75% of local procurement. The company said it is aiming for 85% local procurement on an as yet unnamed future model.
AMG moves to Stuttgart
Mercedes AMG, the Daimler division that engineers, manufactures and customises high performance vehicles, has signed a pre-let agreement with property developer Gazeley for part use of a new logistics facility currently under construction near Stuttgart in Germany.
AMG will use half of the 25,000-square-metre facility, which is located in the G. Park Stuttgart-North, for the storage and distribution.
The fit out of the facility is expected to start in spring 2013.
“The strategic location of this site, in the attractive region of Stuttgart, has been a key factor in agreeing a deal with Mercedes-AMG,” said Ingo Steves, director at Gazeley Germany. “Getting to the building stage has been a real team effort and we’ve been delighted with the response from the local community towards this new facility.”
GM and its local Chinese partners SAIC and Wuling Motors launched a second plant in Liuzhou, southwestern Guangxi province this week to make passenger cars for its local discount brand Baojun.
The 2 million-square-meter facility represents an investment of $1.3 billion in the facility and has an annual capacity of 400,000 vehicles.
SAIC-GM-Wuling is also building a powertrain factory at the plant that will be able to produce up to 400,000 engines annually, scheduled to open in September 2013.
The company already manufactures a range of Wuling brand mini trucks and minivans as well as the Chevrolet Le Chi small passenger vehicle. The Baojun 630 was introduced in August last year and the new plant will expand on its production.
Turkish LSP buyout consolidates Borusan offering
Turkish logistics provider Borusan Lojistik has signed an agreement to take over fellow Turkish provider Balnak Lojistik. The merged companies, which both offer services for the automotive and commercial vehicle sectors amongst others, could become the country’s leading logistics provider.
Borusan purports to operate the first and only multi-brand bonded automotive warehouse in Turkey as well as the only multi-brand pre-delivery inspections (PDI) services. It offers 235,000 square metres of space for vehicle storage and processing able to accommodate nearly 9,000 vehicles. PDI capacity is for around 400 vehicles a day
This year Borusan launched its own heavy transport service with an investment of $3m in 20 special haulers and 20 lowbed trailers. The company offers oversized load services machinery and equipment for used in the construction, energy, mining and marine project sectors amongst others.
Balnak also provides dedicated services for vehicles, including two-wheelers, farming equipment and parts through its warehouse in Gebze. It also handles CKD shipments and end products between pre-production and production stages.
Once the merger is approved by the Turkish authorities, Borusan Logistics’ sales for the full year 2012 are expected to be around the $600m and the firm will have more than 4,000 employees and serve 10,000 clients.
IRU awards Avtologistika
The International Road Transport Union has presented its 10th annual awards for Best Eurasian Road Transport Operator at its recent general assembly in Geneva, Switzerland.
The awards, presented by IRU president, Janusz Lacny, are organised jointly with the CIS Transport Coordination Council, to acknowledge outstanding performance in road transport management, including the development and implementation of social and environmental best practices.
The awards were presented across three fleet size categories with Russia’s I.P. Metelkov taking the award for the first category covering companies with up to 10 vehicles and Moldovan provider Bercoltrans taking the second category award for companies with fleets of between 11 and 50 vehicles.
The third category award for companies with 50+ vehicles went to Kievskoye ATP (Kiev Road Transport Company 13061), a Ukrainian member of Avtologistika, an international group of companies that is dedicated to the automotive sector.
Russian transport provider Selta was nominated for a Special Certificate for the “dynamic development” of their company. Selta operations started in 1999 with just 15 vehicles and now has a fleet of over 4,000 vehicles providing services for a range of sectors.
According to IRU, this year, the jury paid particular attention to Euro norm compliance, financial stability, as well as the professional training of staff.
DHL to open auto campus in Thailand
DHL Supply Chain is opening an automotive campus in Thailand in 2013 to help its customers meet the new demands of the Thai automotive industry which has made a full recovery from last year’s floods to enter the top ten global vehicle making countries.
The campus is part of a wider €50m cross-sector investment in Thailand by the division over the next two and half years.
“Thailand is one of the fastest growing markets for our business, with our footprint growing 30% in the last year,” said Paul Graham, DHL Supply Chain’s CEO for Asia Pacific. “We want to be ready to grow with our customers as they expand within the market.”
DHL already has key automotive facilities in Rayong and is experiencing additional demand for services because of the country’s First Car Buyer Program, a government tax back incentive scheme that has helped sales in the first half of 2012 increase by more than 46% to 605,000 on the same period last year.
