Toyota rebuts Fortuner transfer talk
Toyota Motor Corporation has denied claims that it will shift all local production of its Fortuner sports utility vehicles back to Indonesia.
A senior executive at the carmaker said the allegations were "completely untrue".
But production for Fortuner exports to the Middle East and the Philippines will now be carried out in Indonesia.
Toyota Motor Thailand remains the Fortuner's export base for the rest of the world, he said.
The Fortuner is currently manufactured for domestic sales and exports in both Thailand and Indonesia.
The SUV was first produced locally in 2004 under Toyota's Innovative International Multi-Purpose Vehicle programme. The scheme, under which the automaker's products were manufactured entirely outside of Japan, aimed to use parts from across its global network of factories to make vehicles at the lowest cost and fastest speed.
Indonesia started producing the Fortuner for export to the Middle East and the Philippines in August, 2008.
Later that year, the global financial crisis forced the Indonesian operations to reduce their output to bring it in line with declining overseas orders.
Indonesia's production for the Saudi Arabian market was later shifted to Thailand, followed by output for the Middle East and the Philippines last August.
But the recovering global economy and an upswing in export demand is strong enough for the firm to revive its Indonesian operations, hence the transfer of part of the Fortuner's export component back to the country, said the Toyota Motor Thailand executive.
"It is not a matter of the relocation of the production base from Thailand as claimed by a Toyota unit in Indonesia," he said.
About 1,000 Fortuners are exported in the Middle East each month with another 300 to 400 units shipped to the Philippines.