According to Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour's office, the specific site for the TAB plant, which will be called Auto Parts Manufacturing Mississippi Inc., has not yet been chosen. It will employ 260 workers and begin production by 2010 to coincide with the startup of the Highlander SUV plant. Blue Springs is in the northeast corner of Mississippi.
The TAB plant will provide stamped parts, body weld parts and plastic parts for the Highlander. Currently, the Highlander is manufactured exclusively in Japan. According to Dennis Cuneo, head site consultant for Toyota, the TAB facility also will produce repair parts for the Highlander.
"Typically, when Toyota enters into contracts with suppliers, there is a requirement to provide service parts, and those parts would be made here," Cuneo says. "You have a local source of supply. The supplier simply extends its production runs."
That means the Mississippi location will be the first domestic source of parts for the Highlander in North America, and could conceivably cut delivery times for suppliers to the repair industry.
The total Mississippi supplier network is expected to bring approximately 3,000 jobs to the region, with five or more tier-one suppliers possibly building facilities there. Much of central and northern Mississippi has been hit hard by plant closings in the furniture and food manufacturing industries, and the presence of new automotive parts manufacturing companies will be a welcome boost to the state's economy.
"During our recent economic development mission to Japan the Mississippi delegation visited with Toyota Auto Body officials and came away impressed with the company's high standards and interest in doing business in Mississippi," Barbour said in a prepared statement. "I am very pleased this outstanding company will find a new home in north Mississippi as a major supplier to Toyota's newest auto assembly plant."
The Blue Springs assembly plant will initially produce up to 150,000 High-landers per year. A later expansion will add a second vehicle and more capacity, but Toyota has not released details.
Ground already has been broken on the Toyota Motor Manufacturing Mississippi plant, which is expected to cost $1.3 billion.
