From the AFR:
Car maker Toyota has announced it will stop manufacturing cars in Australia in 2017, citing high costs and the unfavourable dollar for the decision, which will result in the loss of 2,500 manufacturing jobs.
In a statement, Toyota Australia president Max Yasuda said local manufacturing of the Camry, Camry Hybrid and Aurion as well as the production of four cylinder engines, will cease by the end of 2017.
“This is devastating news for all of our employees who have dedicated their lives to the company during the past 50 years,” Mr Yasuda said.
“While we have been undertaking the enormous task of transforming our business during the past two years, our people have joined us on the same journey, which makes it even more difficult to announce this decision.
“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.”
This is bad news and is going to collide with the capex cliff in the mining investment boom. More on this tomorrow.
