Who's Got It, Toyota?

In October, Toyota Motor Corp. was reported to be considering four locations in the U.S. South for a proposed $750-million plant for making large SUVs that would employ some 2,000 people. One Arkansas legislator called for a special session in order to consider measures to help attract the company – a 200-acre (81-hectare) site near Marion was reported to be among the four sites under consideration. According to sources inside the Alabama economic development community, a site near Fackler, Ala., was also under consideration. Toyota's $8-million V-8 engine plant is due to come online in the spring of 2003 in Huntsville, Ala., where it will employ 350. Sites near Jackson, Tenn., and Como, Miss., also appeared to be under the microscope. And one dark horse contender was San Antonio, Tex. According to Japanese media, the Texas city was instead the leading contender by November. The project was expected to be pondered by the Toyota board of directors in early December, but a decision could be months away.
        If it makes the grade, San Antonio boasts a small automotive infrastructure that includes the R&D strengths of the Southwest Research Institute and EG&G Automotive Research; suppliers Alamo Iron Works, TK-Taito Seat Belts, Alcoa/Fujikura and Pass& Seymour/Legrand; and a handful of plastics firms specializing in the sector. Royal Oak Industries, based in Orion Township, Mich., announced in October that it would build a 130,000-sq.-ft. (12,077-sq.-m.) manufacturing facility in the northeast part of the city, where around 100 employees will make machine components and sub-assemblies for a variety of engine-related industries. The Southwest Research Institute, with annual research worth more than $319 million, recently received a $3-million grant from the U.S. Dept. of Energy to conduct research on hydrogen storage, an important aspect of the fuel cell research that is on every automaker's agenda.
        One possible advantage for San Antonio is its proximity to the Mexican parts market, which Toyota has now recognized with a new assembly facility. The project in Tijuana got under way in June 2002 with the goal of producing truck beds only. Three months later, the plant's scope was enlarged to include full assembly, with an investment of some $140 million, and a work force of 460 that would begin assembling pickups and exporting truck beds to a sister facility in Fremont, Cal., in 2005.