Toyota's US Truck Sales Crashing. And?
by John Horner
June 19th, 2008 8:29 PM
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The Wall Street Journal [sub] reports some unsurprising news: "Toyota Motor Corp. is likely to struggle to make money at its two truck plants in the U.S. this year." The $2b San Antonio plant ran at about 92 percent of capacity last year. This year, it's limping along at 72 percent. Its sister truck/SUV factory in Indiana is said to be at a Chrysler-like 45 percent. Thanks to its flexible labor (i.e. non-union), Toyota has already re-assigned Indiana workers from the truck line to Camrys. Both Toyota truck factories are also cutting work hours: "Workers on each shift will work seven hours instead of eight assembling cars and will spend one hour in training." No layoffs, no jobs bank and no 95 percent pay for not showing up. Meanwhile, the car side of Toyota's portfolio remains strong and continues to gain share against Detroit. The Tundra is down, but Prius, Camry, Corolla and Yaris are rocking and rolling out the door.
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An hour of training a day to fill in the dead time? Definitely the way to go.
The deeper the recession, the stronger Toyota becomes. Toyota is one of the few AAA rated corporations (I'm talking about credit rating here and not the auto club). At the end of the day, when others are belly up, Toyota will be just fine.
WSJ is always taking cheap shots at Toyota. I firmly believe it is a union issue. WSJ journalist are unionized and they are supporting their fellow union with attacks on Toyota. I disagree with WSJ and TWAC. In order to increase profits and market share Toyota developed the new Tundra and created the Sienna and Sequoia. This is sound basic business principal to increase their businesses. Every full line OEM is suffering from high fuel prices and slumping economy. WSJ article is just another cheap shot at Toyota.
carlisimo> agreed. If this was GM they'd be doing crossword puzzles.