Toyota to pull out of Australia by 2017

Toyota announced today that is to stop making cars and engines in Australia by the end of 2017 in what would mark the end of an era for a once-vibrant auto production base and the loss of thousands of direct and indirect jobs.

Toyota's decision follows the planned exits of General Motors and Ford Motor announced last year and would leave no global automaker remaining in Australia as high costs and a strong currency make it an unattractive production base. "We did everything that we could to transform our business, but the reality is that there are too many factors beyond our control that make it unviable to build cars in Australia," Toyota Australia President Max Yasuda said in a statement. About 2,500 jobs will be affected when the plant stops building cars in 2017, the company said.

Toyota’s exit from Australia after more than half a century there deals a further blow to Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s conservative government, which is seeking to manage a slowdown in the $1.5 trillion economy as a decade-long mining investment boom slows.

A pullout by Toyota had been widely feared because of the blow to the parts supply base from the flight of GM and Ford.

"It's a huge moment for industry in Australia," Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane told reporters in Canberra after Toyota's announcement. "Toyota have made no requests to us other than express their frustration with the difficulty they were having with the industrial relations process," he said, when asked whether Toyota had sought financial assistance or other forms of aid.

Reuters