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Toyota overtakes Holden exports

Export numbers will likely become a key focus for the car industry as Holden prepares to negotiate for further assistance with the new Federal Government.

Japanese giant Toyota has overtaken Holden as Australia’s biggest exporter of cars, eclipsing the 1 million milestone in less than half the time it took Holden to export 900,000 vehicles.

Toyota Australia this month exported its one-millionth vehicle to the Middle East, with a peak of 97,000 cars shipped in 2008. Toyota has been shipping the Melbourne-made Camry to the region since 1996 but has been exporting cars from Australia since 1986.

Export numbers will likely become a key focus for the car industry as Holden prepares to negotiate for further assistance with the new Federal Government.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Federal Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane have said Holden must export in “significant” numbers if it wants to continue to receive a high level of taxpayer support.

Exports are now seen as crucial to the survival of the car manufacturing industry given that there is not a single vehicle on sale in Australia today -- imported or produced locally -- that can sell in high enough numbers domestically to meet the minimum output required to make a local factory viable.

Ford Australia has announced it will shut its Australian manufacturing operations in October 2016 because it cannot sell enough cars locally and its export potential is limited.

Toyota Australia exports 70 per cent of its production, about 70,000 cars each year, from its facility in Altona. Last year Holden exported just 14,500 cars of the 84,000 cars produced locally, or 17 per cent.

Toyota would not respond to claims that it loses about $2500 on every car it exports -- and makes up for the losses on its profitable imported cars. But Toyota’s profitability on exports is understood to have improved given the recent modest weakening of the Australian dollar as well as cost savings in the production process.

Holden will revive exports of the Commodore to North America this month, with the car due to go on sale there as a Chevrolet by the end of this year. It will join the Caprice luxury sedan which has been sold as a police car in North America for the past two years.

However, a North American General Motors executive last month revealed that the company expected to sell only about 2000 Holden Commodore ‘Chevrolets’ each year, dashing any hopes of a return to Holden’s export peak of 60,500 cars in 2005.

“Exports play a vital part in our balanced business model and we will do everything we can to continue to support our export customers,” said a media statement from Toyota Australia Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Dave Buttner.

Toyota says it exported 72,899 Camry and Aurion sedans last year and, of those, approximately 97 per cent were sent to the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

In addition to the Middle East, Toyota Australia also exports vehicles to New Zealand and the South Pacific Islands.

Toyota Australia reached one million exports to all of its overseas markets in August 2012, a first for a local manufacturer. But September 2013 marks the first time it has exported more than 1 million cars to one region.

Meanwhile, Toyota has overtaken Holden on Australian roads too. After 10 years in a row as the top seller, there are now more than 2.6 million Toyotas registered in Australia compared with 2.03 million Holdens and 1.55 million Fords.

The number of Toyotas on Australian roads has increased by 13.6 per cent since 2008 while the number of Holdens has declined by 2.5 per cent and the number of Fords has dropped by 13.3 per cent over the same period, according to figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics Census published in July 2013.

This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling


Shaping up and shipping out: Australia’s car exports

Toyota: 1,030,000 from 1986 to September 2013.
Biggest export year: In 2008 Toyota exported 97,153 cars, primarily to the Middle East.

Holden: 907,000 from 1954 to 2012. 
Biggest export year: In 2005 Holden exported 60,500 cars to the US and the Middle East.

Ford: 500,000 from 1962 to August 2013 (estimate based on 57,700 exports from 2003 to 2013).
Biggest export year: In 1991 Ford exported 30,000 Capris to the US.

Mitsubishi: 162,000 from 1980 to 2008.
Biggest export year: In 2002 Mitsubishi exported 25,000 sedans to the US and Canada.

 

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