By Dan Shaw, Evansville Courier & Press
Despite a slowing demand for vehicles made at Toyota's Princeton factory, company officials plan to avoid laying off workers there.
That was what Nate Feltman, the Indiana Secretary of Commerce, reported after having talked this week with Fujio Cho, the chairman of Toyota Motor Corp. Feltman is part of an Indiana delegation that is meeting with representatives of Japanese companies this week.
Feltman declined to reveal any specific plans Cho may have mentioned about the future of the Princeton factory.
"I can tell you he commented very positively on the workforce, and that they will continue to not lay off people," Feltman said, speaking from Japan. "That's not going to be any part of their future."
About 4,500 employees work at the Princeton factory, where Toyota makes the Tundra pickup truck, the Sequoia sport-utility vehicle and the Sienna minivan. Because of a slowing demand for those vehicles, Toyota has decided to release 400 temporary workers. Yet, it has avoided laying off full-time employees.
Toyota opened the Princeton factory in 1998, planning to make large vehicles favored at one time by Americans. But a rise in the cost of gasoline to around $4 a gallon has diminished the popularity of those products.
Feltman said Chairman Cho made no mention about media reports which said Toyota may move the production of the Tundra out of Princeton and concentrate it in a plant in San Antonio, Texas.
"I think that's been mostly speculation," Feltman said.
Toyota has said it plans to deal with the decline in demand by reducing its rate of production at the Princeton factory. It made 284,423 vehicles there last year, down from the 324,190 made in 2006. About 350,000 vehicles can be made in the factory each year.
This is the fourth year in a row Indiana representatives have taken an official tour of Japan. Gov. Mitch Daniels accompanied the group on the past three trips but stayed home this time to deal with flooding in the state.
Besides Toyota, the delegation has spoken to representatives of Fuji Heavy Industries, the owner of Subaru, which runs a factory in Lafayette, Ind.; Honda, which plans to make the Civic at plant in Greensburg, Ind.; Sony, which owns an operation in Terre Haute, and Mitsubishi. Feltman said Japanese companies employ around 44,000 workers throughout the state.
During the trip, several others expressed an interest in coming to Indiana, Feltman said, declining to elaborate. Many Japanese businessmen praised Indiana for having a good system of roads and low taxes, among other attributes.
"A number of companies have expressed optimism, have expressed that they will be looking at new investments in Indiana," Feltman said.