Toyota's auto parts plant takes off

BANGALORE: The Toyota Kirloskar Auto Parts (TKAP) plant, geared to manufacture manual transmissions for Toyota''s innovative multi-purpose vehicle platform, started operations on Tuesday.
The 100 per cent export-oriented unit (EOU), backed by investment of Rs 380 crore, can produce 160,000 units annually.
Akio Toyoda, senior managing director of Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC), said his firm''s technical know-how and capacity for cost reduction, coupled with India''s vast resources, could see the country becoming Toyota''s lowest-cost manufacturing centre.
"Toyota Motor Corporation has chosen to source from India for its competitive cost of manufacture, availability of abundant engineering talent and a strong indigenous machine tool industry," Toyota head said.
Finance minister P Chidambaram, who inaugurated the plant, said TKAP was the first Indian firm to join the club of Tier-1 auto component manufacturers for Toyota.
"It''s a huge opportunity for India to become a world leader in auto components manufacturing," Chidambaram said.
TKAP''s managing director, Kiyomichi Ito, said nearly 40 per cent of machinery installed at the transmission plant were made in India.
This includes vertical and horizontal machining centres, special purpose machines, presses and assembly conveyors.
TKAP''s vice-chairman, Vikram Kirloskar, said transmission units produced at the plant will be exported mostly to southeast Asia, South America and South Africa.
The export oriented units of Kirloskar Toyoda Textile Machinery and Owari Precision Products India were set up along with this project, and will support it as Tier-2 suppliers.
Toyota Kirloskar Auto Parts''s equity has been split among Toyota Industries Corporation (26 per cent), Toyota Motor Corporation (64 per cent) and Vikram Kirloskar (10 per cent).
It won the project despite competition from Toyota units in Thailand and the Philippines. The other units outside Japan making Toyota''s manual transmissions are a 10-year old plant in the Philippines and a two-year old one in Poland.