Toyota axes 350 jobs

The carmaker blamed the strong Australian dollar and shrinking export volumes.

The redundancies at its Altona plant may have some effect on Adelaide component suppliers. Toyota Australia president and CEO Max Yasuda said it was unfortunate the company - which has just over 4683 Australian employees in total - had to take this action.

"The reality is that our volumes are down, what we assumed was a temporary circumstance has turned into a permanent situation. This drop of 36 per cent in just four years shows the scale of our challenges," he said.

Mr Yasuda said the company was facing severe operating conditions due to the strong Australian currency and export volume reductions.

The company's production levels have dropped from 149,000 in 2007, to 94,000 in 2011 and an expected 95,000 cars in 2012, which is likely to minimise any impact on component suppliers already geared to the 2011 production rate.

Shrinking Middle East export markets have also eaten into Holden's Australian manufacturing base. The company lost much of its Middle East export volume, which at its peak was just over 60,000 Chevrolet-badged vehicles in 2005 and was expected to be about 10 per cent of that this year.

The strengthening of the Australian currency - at parity with the US dollar - has been cited by both Holden and Toyota as a factor in the reduced export volumes. The Japanese-owned car maker spends between $140 and $200 million a year in SA.

Tenneco - which supplies Walker exhausts and Monroe dampers - spokesman Phil McMahon said the company was not aware of any changes. "We'll have to look into it and see what impact it may have," he said.

Multi Slide Industries at Edwardstown - which produces the torsion bars for Camry and Aurion bootlids - has increased production for Toyota; general manager Al Kalvaitis said the changes were unlikely to have an impact.

"It's increased our business - but we'll have it to play it by ear and wait and see what happens, with our operations wouldn't see any job losses," he said.