The Australian arm of Japanese auto giant Toyota yesterday announced that it would sack 350 workers at its southern carmaking plant, citing “unprecedented” pressure on its operations.
Toyota Australia president Max Yasuda said the firm would “immediately adjust its workforce” at its Altona auto plant, describing it as a necessary step given “current and anticipated” conditions.
“Toyota Australia is facing severe operating conditions resulting in unsustainable financial returns due to factors including the strong Australian currency, reduced cost competitiveness and volume decline, especially in export markets,” Yasuda said.
The cuts represent about 7.5 percent of the plant’s workforce.
Demand had failed to recover from the global downturn, with production slipping a staggering 36 percent since 2007, when 149,000 cars were made, to just 95,000 forecast for this year, he added.
“What we assumed was a temporary circumstance has turned into a permanent situation,” Yasuda said.
The job cuts come less than a year after Toyota scaled back production by 20 percent, putting staff on half-shifts, after an earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan.
Fellow car giant Ford shed 240 Australian jobs following the March 11 disaster, also citing a slump in demand for its popular large sedans.
Canberra pledged A$34 million (US$36 million) to help prop up production at Ford’s operations earlier this month, saying it was vital to both Toyota and Holden, Australia’s third major auto firm, that it stay afloat.
Australian Minister for Manufacturing Kim Carr said the latest layoffs were an “unfortunate consequence of the high dollar and global uncertainty,” with Toyota shipping about 70 percent of its Australian production offshore, mostly to the Middle East.
“The harsh reality of the continuing strong Australian dollar means that Toyota’s export markets are under severe pressure and they are struggling to sell enough cars to keep the Altona line at full capacity,” Carr said. “Ultimately, companies have to take tough decisions based on commercial realities to ensure that their business model remains sustainable, and that is what Toyota has done today.”
The government extended a multibillion-dollar lifeline to the nation’s ailing auto industry at the height of the global financial crisis, after Ford cut 450 jobs.
It also offered Holden an A$200 million credit line in 2009 after US parent General Motors filed for bankruptcy, handing 60 percent of the company to Washington. The auto industry directly employs about 46,000 people in Australia and supports another 230,000 jobs, with 219,376 cars made in the country last year and 1.01 million vehicles sold.
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
RSS