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Toyota chief voices readiness to form alliance with other carmakers(Kyodo News International (Tokyo) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Apr. 18--FUKUOKA -- Toyota Motor Corp. President Katsuaki Watanabe expressed willingness Tuesday to form an alliance with troubled automakers in the global marketplace. "The possibility exists constantly that a reconfiguration of ties between global automakers will occur since the automotive industry is going through intense competition," Watanabe told a news conference in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture. "It requires conducting mammoth capital outlays for automakers to innovate their technologies in the fields of the environment, safety and the telecommunications," he said, adding, "On top of that, such innovations require securing personnel resources." "There is the adequate possibility that we will form various types of alliances with others, if an automaker faces difficulties in meeting these needs single-handedly," he said. Watanabe made these remarks at a time when multiple automakers both at home and overseas are confronting hardships in meeting these investment needs and maintaining their profitability and presence in the world's marketplace. Watanabe is on a visit to Kitakyushu to commemorate the completion of a new engine factory in Kanda, Fukuoka Prefecture, Toyota's first domestic engine plant in a location other than its home turf of Aichi Prefecture. The new Fukuoka plant will supply engines for use in Toyota's Lexus luxury automobiles. Akiyoshi Watanabe, president of Toyota Motor Kyushu Inc., a wholly owned unit, told the same news conference his firm "expects to manufacture a total of 438,000 vehicles," both the Lexus and other brands, during the current business year to March 31, 2007. Toyota Motor Kyushu is planning to boost plant utilization ratios at its plants to full capacity by the end of the current business year, he said. |