[got-rice]

http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2017/01/toyota-is-donald-trump-s-latest-twitter-target.html

For better or worse, President-elect Donald Trump loves Twitter.

Trump has previously tweeted about GM and Ford, calling out both companies for plans to move auto production to Mexico. On Thursday, Trump tweeted that Toyota plans on building a new plant in Baja, Mexico to build its popular Corolla, and like Ford, is threatening the company with a big border tax if it doesn’t build the plant in the U.S.

The Japanese automaker has since responded to Trump, releasing a statement saying that it has been part of the cultural fabric in the U.S. for nearly 60 years and that its new plant in Guanajuato, Mexico – not Baja – won’t decrease production volume or employment in the U.S.

Without surprise, the responses to Trump’s tweet are divisive, much like the election results. There are plenty of people posting images of how Trump and his daughter’s products are manufactured in China or Mexico.

Toyota Motor said will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build Corolla cars for U.S. NO WAY! Build plant in U.S. or pay big border tax.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 5, 2017

Statement in response to the President Elect’s recent comment. Please visit https://t.co/BxLSOPbXV8 for more information pic.twitter.com/d8E8TQnzqc

— Toyota USA (@Toyota) January 5, 2017

http://pressroom.toyota.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=5882&sf49616414=1&sf49623541=1

Toyota has been part of the cultural fabric in the U.S. for nearly 60 years. Production volume or employment in the U.S. will not decrease as a result of our new plant in Guanajuato, Mexico announced in April 2015. With more than $21.9 billion direct investment in the U.S., 10 manufacturing facilities, 1,500 dealerships and 136,000 employees, Toyota looks forward to collaborating with the Trump Administration to serve in the best interests of consumers and the automotive industry.

In 2015 Toyota exported more than 160,000 U.S.-built vehicles to 40 countries, helping to establish the U.S. as a global export hub.

Our manufacturing facilities in Baja, Mexico, established in 2002, support production at our San Antonio, Texas plant, where 3,300 team members produced over 230,000 Tundras and Tacomas in 2016.

Recent manufacturing expansions by Toyota in the U.S. include:
$360 million investment in Toyota’s Georgetown, Kentucky plant, adding 750 new jobs
$150 million investment at its Huntsville, Alabama plant
$100 million investment in Toyota’s Princeton, Indiana plant, adding 300 jobs
$90 million investment at its Buffalo, West Virginia plant, adding 80 jobs

It was a matter of time before the Donald would address Toyota's decision to make cars in Mexico (Though they've been making Tacomas there for over a decade now).

 

[humanoid]

Only they aren't an American based company, although they do have many holdings in the US, but he shouldn't to dictate to a foreign company like he does.

 

[heartdisease]

I think they have more clout than him in that game truthfully. They could just as easily move more jobs to Mexico.

 

[ECHOKnight2000]

It would be ironic if a "business" man would drive out companies. Meaning I know these are tweets and not official policy but you are turning off business when you bully. I'm glad someone is standing up and trying to keep jobs in the US but tweets aren't going to do it. Takes more than that. BUT gotta be pragmatic about it too. Toyota has been an employer of American workers for a quite sometime. Heck when domestics were outsourcing Toyota was building plants in the US. But like most companies they are a global company.

 

[ThorInc]

It maybe this simple, once the dislikes outdistance the likes, he will stop.

 

[heartdisease]

It would be ironic if a "business" man would drive out companies. Meaning I know these are tweets and not official policy but you are turning off business when you bully. I'm glad someone is standing up and trying to keep jobs in the US but tweets aren't going to do it. Takes more than that. BUT gotta be pragmatic about it too. Toyota has been an employer of American workers for a quite sometime. Heck when domestics were outsourcing Toyota was building plants in the US. But like most companies they are a global company.

Because domestic produced Toyotas don't have the large tariffs that made in Japan models do.

 

[ECHOKnight2000]

^^Gotcha. You're right Japan is very protectionists policies. Of course its only "racist" when America does it (along with everything else is racist).

 

[heartdisease]

Well in this instance its America assessing the tariffs on them. Enough that it was cheaper and made more sense to just build factories here to avoid them being imports.

 

[TrailDust]

IMHO, tariffs are a fee imposed by the historically ignorant.

 

[got-rice]

Toyota defended by Japan after Trump broadside over Mexican plant

http://www.autonews.com/article/201...apan-after-trump-broadside-over-mexican-plant

TOKYO -- The Japanese government defended Toyota Motor Corp. on Friday as an "important corporate citizen" of the U.S., after President-elect Donald Trump singled out the automaker and threatened to slap punitive tariffs on its Mexico-built cars.

Trump has repeatedly hit out at U.S. companies for using lower-cost factories abroad at the expense of jobs at home. He has slammed U.S. automakers, including Ford which this week scrapped a planned $1.6 billion Mexico plant.

But the attack Thursday on Toyota is his first against a foreign automaker. "Toyota Motor said will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build Corolla cars for U.S. NO WAY! Build plant in U.S. or pay big border tax," Trump tweeted.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters on Friday that Toyota was an "important corporate citizen," while Trade Minister Hiroshige Seko stressed the contribution of Japanese companies to U.S. employment.

"We think the impact on business performance is limited," Akira Kishimoto, a senior analyst at JP Morgan, said in a note.

"A cool judgement is needed."

Toyota's exposure to Mexico is limited, Kishimoto said, adding that even an "extreme case" tariff of 20 percent would hit its operating profit by around 6 percent. Trump has threatened a 35 percent tariff on cars imported from Mexico.

Toyota is just one of a host of companies operating in Mexico. It has an assembly plant in Baja California, where it produces the Tacoma pick-up truck, and where it could increase production.

Trump's tweet, however, confused Toyota's existing Baja plant with the planned $1 billion plant in Guanajuato, where construction got under way in November, days after the election.

The Guanajuato plant will build Corollas and have an annual capacity of 200,000 when it comes online in 2019, shifting production of the small car from Canada.

Baja produces around 100,000 pickup trucks and truck beds annually. Toyota said in September it would increase output of pick-up trucks by more than 60,000 units annually.

Other Japanese automakers and suppliers in Mexico include Nissan, which has been in Mexico for decades after choosing it as the site for its first assembly plant outside Asia. Nissan has two facilities there, producing 830,000 units in the year to March 2016.

Honda operates two assembly and engine plants with a total annual capacity of 263,000 vehicles, and a transmission plant with an annual capacity of 350,000 units.

Toyota suppliers Aisin Seiki Co. and Denso Corp. have two and three plants, respectively, in Mexico. Parts makers tend to cluster near assembly plants under the industry's "just-in-time" production practice.

 

[cipher93]

There is a difference between US companies packing up shop and moving across the boarder and a foreign company looking to build there for the US and other markets. In the latter case you can argue it is not costing American jobs and money because they were never here, rather what is costing those jobs are the policies and costs of doing business that lead to companies setting up shop in Canada or Mexico. The root causes may be related, but one has a measurable impact, the other doesn't and tariffs are not the long term solution for the issue of a non-competitive industrial environment. There should be consideration given to hitting companies that pack up and leave with some kind of exit tax or something, but instead of taxing and getting upset why a foreign entity won't build a new factory in your country, ask why. With car plants on both sides of the border I suspect a huge part of the "why" is NAFTA, which was a great "domestic" policy for shooting our own industry in the foot.

 

[05Moose]

It's the 70s and 80s all over again. That failed then. If I were these companies, I'd shift things so only US built vehicles come here and NONE of the US built vehicles would be exported. Take all the exportable vehicles and give Mexico the revenue. That's how you thumb your nose at the new US policy. How much will it hurt the US to lose all the auto exports?

 

[TrailDust]

One hopes that in the end saner minds will prevail and there will be no tariffs or other protectionist tactics.

 

[toyotaspeed90]

Toyota has been making cars all over the world for a very long time. Hell, I'm guessing very few even know this, but there's an FJ40 variant that is still in production called the Toyota Bandeirante in Brazil - which Toyota sent the molds to Brazil in around 83 when the FJ40 was done "worldwide".

There are versions of the Corolla all around the world that have never hit the US dealership pavement.

All Toyota has to do to get around any sort of taxes it to retool a plant to produce all Corolla's in the US - which unfortunately means the quality will go down (for a multitude of reasons) - then use the Mexico plant to build corolla's destined elsewhere.

 

[Vulcan05]

Toyota stock dropped $1.5 billion after his tweet. Before being "elected", he could only bankrupt his own companies.

 

[zzyzzx]

Only they aren't an American based company, although they do have many holdings in the US, but he shouldn't to dictate to a foreign company like he does.

If said foreign company wants to sell here, then yes he should. It's irresponsible to let any company, domestic or foreign, to throw American workers under the proverbial bus.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/01/09/toyota-announced-10-billion-u-s-investment-days-after-trump-warns-company.html

Toyota announces $10 billion U.S. investment days after Trump warning

Chalk up another win for the president-elect!


Toyota is set to make a $10 billion capital investment in the U.S. over the next five years, Toyota Motor North America chief executive Jim Lentz said during an interview at the Detroit auto show, Reuters reported.

 

[humanoid]

^ You'd probably add another $10B to the trade deficit too, there are 2 sides to that coin. Great idea creating more jobs in America, but most of that profit will be going back to the Land of the Rising Sun.

 

[toyotaspeed90]

Toyota stock dropped $1.5 billion after his tweet. Before being "elected", he could only bankrupt his own companies.

Once again, non-fact based statements are made by you, with underlying tones, and no backing of it.

Less than 30 seconds on Google searching for the NYSE Toyota Stock for 1 day, 5 day, 1 month, and 3 months show that although they have had some shifts in their stock in the past week (which anyone who understands anything about stocks knows that is normal - and is exactly how daytraders make loads of money) - any drop they've seen in the past week has still kept them well above where they were 2 months ago - and the lowest they've been was around 8-10 months ago.

The past week the lowest it's been, per share, was $117, is currently $119, and Apri 7 it was $98.

As usual - try again.


Here - I will help you.... The lowest it's been in 5 years was in 2012 in the middle of Obama's administration. Now - what happened several years ago that might impact Toyota's stock? Got it - the accelerator pedal issue. So, then you will probably say "gotcha, has nothing to do with politics! Toyota made a subpar product!". That's not entirely true - the accelerator pedal issue happened only on US built cars. This is because in order for the cars assembled here to be called "US built" have quite a bit of political requirements/red tape of where the parts come from. Meaning - Toyota has to use US suppliers for many of the electronics. The accelerator pedal issue was unique to the US because the TBW motor used in the US cars was different from those used elsewhere in the world, which did not jam open.

Trump had little effect on their stock. Stocks move up and down, that's normal.

 

[TrailDust]

^ You'd probably add another $10B to the trade deficit too, there are 2 sides to that coin. Great idea creating more jobs in America, but most of that profit will be going back to the Land of the Rising Sun.

Just to expand on that. There was a Wall Street Journal article a few months ago that detailed how much money was generated by having plants in the U.S. versus how much actually made it back to Japan for Toyota, Honda, etc. If I can find it I'll post it up. It was good reading....just wish I'd retained more from the article.

 

[got-rice]

Just to expand on that. There was a Wall Street Journal article a few months ago that detailed how much money was generated by having plants in the U.S. versus how much actually made it back to Japan for Toyota, Honda, etc. If I can find it I'll post it up. It was good reading....just wish I'd retained more from the article.

was it this one?
http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/3...vises-down-full-year-earnings-projection.html