Toyota Sets Start-Up Date for Mississippi Plant

BLUE SPRINGS, Mississippi (June 17, 2010) – Toyota is resuming construction of its Mississippi plant, which will soon hire 2,000 team members and build the Corolla compact sedan beginning in the fall of 2011.
          
Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour plans to visit Toyota Motor Manufacturing Mississippi (TMMMS) today to meet with Northeast Mississippi community leaders and Toyota officials.
          
This decision to begin production with Corolla enables TMMMS to open as quickly as possible.  Also, by beginning production with Corolla, nearly all Corolla for this market will be built in North America.  Some of the Corolla for North America have been built in Japan since April. 
 
“Toyota appreciates the patience of Gov. Barbour and all Mississippians, but we first needed to fully utilize our existing facilities as the economy slowed.  Now it’s time to fulfill Toyota’s promise in Mississippi,” said Yoshimi Inaba, president and chief operating officer of Toyota Motor North America.  “Toyota remains committed to making vehicles where we sell them and to maintaining a substantial manufacturing presence in North America.”
          
The TMMMS building is essentially complete.  Most of the remaining work involves the installation of equipment.   The administration office is already occupied by about 60 team members.  Details about the hiring process will be divulged later this summer.
 
About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE:TM) established operations in North America in 1957 and currently operates 13 manufacturing plants. There are more than 1,800 Toyota, Lexus and Scion dealerships in North America which sold more than 2.05 million vehicles in 2009. Toyota directly employs more than 35,000 in North America and its investment here is currently valued at more than $23 billion, including sales and manufacturing operations, research and development, financial services and design. Toyota's annual purchasing of parts, materials, goods and services from North American suppliers totals more than $25 billion. Toyota currently produces 12 vehicles in North America, including the Avalon, Camry, Corolla, Highlander, Matrix, RAV4, Sienna, Sequoia, Tacoma, Tundra, Venza and the Lexus RX 350. For more information about Toyota, visit www.toyota.com or www.toyotanewsroom.com.

retrieved from: http://pressroom.toyota.com/pr/tms/toyota-sets-start-up-date-for-160500.aspx

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The most notable industrial development in the region was the announcement of Toyota Motor Corporation’s facility in Blue Springs, Mississippi, approximately 50 miles southwest in Union County. The project will be the company’s eighth North American manufacturing facility and will consist of a $1.3 billion investment. Overall, the facility will produce 2,000 direct jobs once the plant is operational and another 4,900 indirect jobs within five years of the plant’s opening. Once it is operational, the plant will produce the Toyota Prius, and the annual payroll is estimated to be $328 million. This development will increase demand for available industrial properties in Northeast Mississippi as a number of “Tier II” Suppliers for the Toyota plant will be required in the area:

Wellsprings Project - Toyota Mississippi     [top]

Prentiss County Transportation       [top]

Ground Transportation

Freight Carriers Serving North Mississippi

AAA Cooper ABF Freight Arkansas Freightways Atlanta Motor Lines Averitt Express Burnett, W.M. Truck Lines Carolina Freight Corp. Churchill Truck Lines Consolidated Freightways    Freeman Truck Line Gay Truck Line Jones Truck Lines Merchant Truck Lines Old Dominion Freightline Overnight Transportation Ozark Transfer Co. Phillips Truck Line Roadway Express Saia Motor Freight

• Four-lane Highway 45 runs north and south thru Prentiss County and intersects with east/west four-lane Highway 72 to the north 20 miles, and with Highway 78 (future I-22) to the south 30 miles.

• Two separate ground transportation routes are available to the Toyota Plant Site (shown on the attached map).

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Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)     [top]

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned corporation in the United States created by a congressional charter in May 1933 to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development in the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly impacted by the Great Depression.

The TVA was envisioned not only as an electricity provider, but also as a regional economic development agency that would use federal experts and electricity to rapidly modernize the region's economy society.

• TVA paid state and local governments in the Tennessee Valley region a record $452 million in tax equivalent payments that are used to support local education and other vital community needs.
• TVA purchased $2.4 billion in goods, fuel, and services from businesses and industries in the Valley region.
• TVA invested in economic development efforts to support the expansion of businesses and industries. These investments helped create or keep 45,000 jobs in our region and leveraged $5.6 billion in capital investment.
• TVA received independent certification of an additional megasite suitable for automobile manufacturing. By the end of 2007, nine megasites have been certified since the program began in 2004. Three have been sold to major industries.
• For the second year in a row, Site Selection magazine named TVA one of the “Top Utilities of the Year” for outstanding economic-development achievements in the Tennessee Valley.

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