Toyota Motor to assemble Camry sedan in Malaysia

The Nation reported that Toyota Motor Corporation of Japan will produce its Camry sedan at Assembly Services Sdn Bhd's plant in Shah Alam in two years.

Assembly Services is a unit of UMW Toyota Motor Sdn Bhd, which is a JV between Toyota Japan, Toyota Tsusho Corporation and UMW Corporation Sdn Bhd.

UMW Toyota said in a statement that it would initially invest about MYR 100 million to start the local production. It added that "This project reflects the support of UMW Toyota and Toyota Japan to Malaysia’s National Automotive Policy to promote localization. It is hoped that the project will benefit local vendors and contribute to the Malaysian auto industry."

UMW Toyota, which distributes Toyota vehicles in the country, said that it had invested about MYR 290 million over the past 5 years to develop its manufacturing facilities.

Mr Kuah Kock Heng president of UMW Toyota said that "We will invest more than MYR 170 million to further develop Assembly Services over the next three years. We will enhance its quality, automation and productivity."

Mr Kuah said that its Toyota Vios sub compact sedan was now being assembled with 40% local content and the company planned to increase this to 50% in the next generation model. He added that "For other models, we will gradually increase the local content as our vendors further developed their capabilities to meet the high standards."

UMW Toyota said that a further investment of about MYR 200 million had been allocated to build a centralized stockyard in Bukit Raja. It added that "The facility is scheduled to begin operation by mid 2011."