World Reports, Site Selection Magazine, September 2003

Ever-expanding Toyota Motor Corp. plans a Thailand-Australia research and development base to serve growing markets in Asia and Oceania. Both will begin operations in late 2004.

        The Thailand facility will be in Samut Prakan Province and will employ 240 initially. Toyota will invest 2.7 billion baht (US$65 million) in the facility. The Australia operation will be in Melbourne and represents an investment of AU$47 million (US$31.4 million). The facility will employ 90.

        “We believe these centers will provide the resources and knowledge to serve our customers in both regions better than ever before,” said TMC Director Kazutoshi Minami, who was in charge of supervising overseas product development at the time of the announcement, but retired in late June to an appointment as a Toyota advisor as part of an overall change in the company’s board of directors and auditors.

        Toyota says the two-country formula seeks to reap Thailand’s geographical advantage and Australia’s proven achievements in automobile development. The list of achievements grew longer when Mitsubishi Motors Australia and Siemens VDO Automotive signed a deal that will have Siemens VDO establish a manufacturing base in Adelaide, Australia, to manufacture complete cockpit modules for Mitsubishi’s two new models due in 2005. Siemens VDO will build a new facility adjacent to Mitsubishi’s current plant. The firms will invest approximately $AU 77 million ($US51.2 million) in the plant, which will employ 55.

Hewlett Packard has signed an agreement with SNAS Trading & Contract Co. of Saudi Arabia to build and manage a PC assembly plant in the kingdom. The first PCs from the facility are slated for distribution in the local market this fall. The plant will produce about 80,000 PCs annually to be sold in Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries. HP says the new plant will halve delivery time in the region to 15 days.

        HP will provide components, system integration and knowledge transfer as well as all arrangements involving HP branding. SNAS will be responsible for the manufacturing process, for quality certification and for establishment and maintenance of the legal entity under Saudi regulations.

NACCO Materials Handling Group, which manufactures lift trucks under the Hyster and Yale brands, is expanding its forklift manufacturing plant in Craigavon, Northern Ireland. The $38-million investment will include introduction of new technology to the plant, which produces more than 15,000 lift trucks annually and serves customers in Europe and the Middle East.

Auto industry supplier Japanese Oiles Corp. plans a factory in the Kada industrial zone in the Czech Republic. The plant will employ 50 and serve Toyota and other automakers in Europe.

Japanese Oiles Corp. plans to invest up to $8 million over the next three years in a plant in the Kada industrial zone in North Bohemia in the Czech Republic. The company, which supplies Toyota, Honda and Nissan, will produce seal and self-lubricating bearings from graphite and plastics and will initially employ 50.

        Japanese Oiles selected the location over a site near Walbrzych, Poland. The company plans to begin production in October 2004.

        “We chose Kada, mainly for its better infrastructure and friendly and well-educated people,” said Shohei Nakamato, international operations director for Oiles. “Furthermore, its location is near Germany, where we have our biggest customers.”

Auto industry supplier Japanese Oiles Corp. plans a factory in the Kada industrial zone in the Czech Republic. The plant will employ 50 and serve Toyota and other automakers in Europe.

AgroFerm has broken ground for a new factory for lysine production in Esbjerg, Denmark. Lysine is a high-value food additive product for the pig and poultry industries. The plant will be northern Europe’s first lysine fermentation facility and is set to open in May 2004.

With Slovakia and its 5.4 million people set to join the European Union next year, the country created from the breakup of Czechoslovakia in 1993 is drawing considerable interest from manufacturers looking to serve central and eastern European markets. One of the latest to choose the 10-year-old nation is PSA Peugeot Citro?n, which has begun work on its plant in Trnava, Slovakia.

PSA Peugeot Citro?n is investing 700 million euros ($US799 million) in its new manufacturing facility in Trnava, Slovakia. When complete in 2006, the facility will employ 3,500.

        The plant will extend the automaker’s production base in Europe and will begin manufacturing small Platform 1 vehicles in 2006. It will have an annual production capacity of 300,000 units and will employ 3,500 in three shifts. The project represents a total investment of about 700 million euros (US$799 million).

        Peugeot says it chose the Trnava site to base new capacity closer to promising markets in Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia. The company sold 113,000 vehicles in these six countries in 2002. Slovakia is also near strong growth markets in Germany, Austria and Italy. (For more on the power of emerging markets in Eastern Europe, see the special online edition of “European Location Trends” from the July 2003 issue of Site Selection at www.siteselection.com.)

        Peugeot also cites Trnava’s status as a major European transportation hub and its educated work force. The greenfield site offers 190 hectares (470 acres) for construction and a 55-hectare (136-acre) site nearby allows suppliers to build facilities near the plant. The Trnava region shares borders with Austria, the Czech Republic and Hungary – the city is 31 miles (50 km.) from Bratislava and 59 miles (95 km.) from Vienna.

PSA Peugeot Citro?n is investing 700 million euros ($US799 million) in its new manufacturing facility in Trnava, Slovakia. When complete in 2006, the facility will employ 3,500.

Recent rankings by Mercer Human Resource Consulting peg Tokyo as the world’s most expensive city. Moscow comes in second, followed by Osaka, which moves up three notches from 2002.

        “This year, the changing global economic environment has had a major impact on the cost of living index,” says Yvonne Traber, senior researcher at Mercer. “The depreciation of the U.S. dollar against the Euro, high inflation and economic recession in many countries have modified the scores of a number of cities.”

        The survey covers 144 cities and measures the comparative cost of more than 200 items including housing, food, clothing, transportation and household goods. Of the world’s 20 most expensive cities, half are in Asia.

        In Europe, Moscow, Geneva and London are the costliest cities. New York remains the most expensive city in North America, followed by Los Angeles and Chicago. The Canadian cities of Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa are among the least expensive cities.

        Political and economic turmoil placed the South American cities of Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Bogot? and Asuncion among the least expensive cities surveyed. Mercer says devaluation of the real caused S?o Paulo and Rio de Janeiro to drop to positions 136 and 137 respectively. At position 108, Lima, Peru, is the most expensive city in South America.