Toyota to consolidate market share on local assembly
Toyota Nigeria Limited (TNL) has revealed that it will soon start the local assembly of Hiace commuter buses in Lagos, a strategic move industry watchers say will impact positively and help the Japanese automaker consolidate on its prime position as a global and Nigeria’s market leader.
The piece of good news made known in Lagos to the motoring journalists by Kunle Ade-Ojo, managing director of Toyota Nigeria Limited development while reviewing market trends in 2015 and what to expect from the franchisee in 2016 ends months of speculation within industry circles on the company’s plans of establishing an assembly plant in Nigeria in line with automotive policy of the federal government introduced in 2013.
According to the TNL managing director, the plant’s facility sitting a 40,000 square metre of land and comprising two lines is expected to assemble mini buses, pickups and other light commercial vehicles when full scale assembly operations commences.
Presenting the first Toyota Hiace bus assembled inside the assembly Semi Knocked Down (SKD) plant equipped with modern facilities and located at the Ikotun area of Lagos, he disclosed that the plant is built with 30,000-unit production capacity every year across all models.
He insisted that at present, no automobile company can lay claim manufacturing any vehicle in Nigeria and even globally at 100 percent. He said that “What everybody does is to assemble the parts which are shipped in from overseas by the Original Equipments Manufacturers (OEMs).
Ade-Ojo said as soon as the mass production of vehicles commenced with increasing demand, there would be competitive prices for its products. “We are constantly training technicians and as far as the plant is concerned, we are assuring customers that we will continuously improve the assembling process of our vehicles to ensure that the vehicles meet international standards.” He noted.
The Hiace, he said, was assembled as a test case, adding that the organisation would soon begin its mass production, even as there is need to introduce some changes to the plant so as to achieve efficiency in the operations. With the current economic situation, TNL is looking at starting the mass production of the passenger vehicle in within the year.
The managing director however maintained that for the local assembly plants to grow there is need on the part of government to support the automotive policy as other countries making vehicles presently have done.
He therefore urged the federal government to prioritize efforts on developing local ancillary auto components manufacturing cluster industries. This emphasis he hopes would go a long way in supporting and driving the growth and development of the automotive production sector as well as help it achieve set goals.
The decision on the part of the global and Nigeria’s auto market front runner is coming almost three years after the announcement of the National Automotive Industry Development Plan (NAIDP) by the Federal Government, which raised the import duty and levy on imported new cars to 70 percent (35 percent each) to discourage vehicle importation.
Recall that last year, Michael Ade-Ojo, chairman of Toyota Nigeria Limited (TNL) and manufacturers representatives on all new Toyota models in the country had announced the company’s plan to set up an automobile assembly plant in the country. Toyota is the latest to join the league of Nissan, Ford, Kia, Peugeot and other auto firms already granted operational licences to assemble vehicles locally.
MIKE OCHONMA